A 15-dBm SiGe BiCMOS PA for 77-GHz Automotive Radar

Author

Giammello, Vittorio ; Ragonese, Egidio ; Palmisano, Giuseppe

Author_Institution

Dipt. di Ing. Elettr., Elettron. e Inf., Univ. di Catania, Catania, Italy

Volume

59

Issue

11

fYear

2011

Firstpage

2910

Lastpage

2918

Abstract

This paper presents a 15-dBm power amplifier for 77-GHz automotive radar applications, which is fabricated in a 0.13-μm 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.

Keywords

BiCMOS integrated circuits; Ge-Si alloys; circuit optimisation; millimetre wave bipolar transistors; millimetre wave power amplifiers; road vehicle radar; SiGe; SiGe BiCMOS PA; automotive radar; bipolar transistors; current 130 mA; frequency 77 GHz; layout optimization; power amplifier; pseudodifferential cascode; size 0.13 mum; voltage 2.5 V; Automotive applications; BiCMOS integrated circuits; Millimeter wave circuits; Power amplifiers; Transformers; BiCMOS integrated circuits (ICs); IC layout; electromagnetic (EM) simulations; millimeter-wave circuits; power amplifier (PA); transformers;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Microwave Theory and Techniques, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9480

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/TMTT.2011.2166802

Filename

6029952