Search

This paper reviews state-of-the-art design approaches for low-voltage radio frequency (RF) and millimeter-wave (mm-wave) CMOS circuits. Effective design techniques at RF/mm-wave frequencies are described, including body biasing in fully depleted (FD) silicon-on-insulator (SOI) CMOS technologies and circuit topologies based on integrated reactive components (i.e., capacitors, inductors and transformers). The application of low-voltage design techniques is discussed for the main RF/mm-wave circuit blocks, i.e., low-noise amplifiers (LNAs), mixers and power amplifiers (PAs), highlighting the main design tradeoffs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents a $W$ -band power amplifier (PA) for automotive radar applications. It was designed in a 28-nm fully depleted silicon-on-insulator CMOS technology with a transition frequency of around 270 GHz and a standard back-end-of-line. The circuit adopts a pseudo-differential topology with coupling transformers, which allow both compact matching networks and layout-optimized interstage interconnections. The power stage exploits a transformer-based folded-cascode structure that is very suitable for low-voltage mm-wave power applications. The PA is able to deliver a saturated output power as high as 13.5 dBm at 77 GHz with a power-added efficiency of 14.5%, while using a power supply as low as 1 V. The linear power gain is 26.5 dB and the current consumption is 150 mA. The PA occupies a core die size of $700\,\,\mu \text{m}\,\,\times 200\,\,\mu \text{m}$. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents a 24/77-GHz transmitter chipset for automotive radar sensors implemented in a 160/175-GHz fT/fmax SiGe BiCMOS technology. The chipset adopts a dual-band architecture consisting of a 24-GHz section for ultra-wideband short-range radar operation, which is also exploited to drive the 77-GHz long-range radar transmitter front-end. The proposed design adopts a single 24-GHz frequency synthesizer to implement both radar operation modes. The transmitter chipset is able to deliver a maximum output power of 3 dBm and 12 dBm at 24 GHz and 77 GHz, respectively. The 24-GHz transmitter demonstrates to operate with pulse widths of 0.5 ns and 1 ns in compliance with the transmission mask designed by ETSI. The 77-GHz transmitter exhibits a power gain of 20 dB, an output power of 12 dBm, and an output referred 1-dB compression point of 9.5 dBm, while drawing 155 mA from a 2.5-V supply voltage. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 55:782-786, 2013; View this article online at wileyonlinelibrary.com. DOI: 10.1002/mop.27425 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a pseudodifferential power amplifier for 77-GHz automotive radar. The circuit is fabricated in a SiGe HBT BiCMOS technology featuring bipolar transistors with fT/f\max of 230/280 GHz. The amplifier adopts a transformer-coupling current-reuse approach to improve both gain and efficiency. An interstacked transformer is also profitably adopted to reduce output losses due to the differential-to-single-ended conversion. The amplifier exhibits a saturated power, a peak power-added efficiency, and a gain of 14.5 dBm, 9%, and 25 dB, respectively, thus achieving a first-rate figure-of-merit as high as 4755. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper presents a 15-dBm power amplifier for 77-GHz automotive radar applications, which is fabricated in a 0.13-\mu\ m SiGe:C BiCMOS process featuring bipolar transistors with f T / f\max of 230/280 GHz. The circuit consists of a two-stage pseudodifferential cascode with fully integrated input/output matching networks. State-of-art performance is achieved with the proposed design algorithm and layout optimization. The amplifier demonstrates a figure-of-merit of 2500 achieving a 22.5-dB power gain and a power-added efficiency of 7.5% at 77 GHz, while drawing 130 mA from a 2.5-V voltage supply. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This letter presents a 77-GHz power amplifier implemented in a SiGe BiCMOS technology featuring bipolar transistors with 160/175-GHz f/ f. The circuit adopts a two stage differential topology with integrated input/output matching networks. The amplifier performance is considerably improved thanks to proper input/output LC resonant networks, which cancel out the ground-plane parasitic effect. Matching networks use stacked transformers for impedance matching, differential-to-single-ended conversion, and electro-static discharge protection. The circuit achieves a power gain of 18.5 dB, a maximum output power of 11.6 dBm, with 4.2% power-added efficiency, and an output 1-dB compression point of 9.3 dBm. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 53:1413-1416, 2011; View this article online at wileyonlinelibrary.com. DOI 10.1002/mop.25972 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]