Frequency-scalable SiGe bipolar RFIC front-end design

Author

Shana´A, Osama ; Linscott, Ivan ; Tyler, Len

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electr. Eng., Stanford Univ., CA, USA

fYear

2000

fDate

2000

Firstpage

183

Lastpage

186

Abstract

A highly-optimized SiGe RF bipolar front-end design is proposed. The optimum noise figure (NF_opt) of a bipolar device is introduced in contrast with the minimum noise figure (NF_min). An analytical method to design the low noise amplifier (LNA) at the optimum noise figure point is derived. The optimized LNA design scales linearly with frequency for multi-band RF front-end design. The optimization method is extended to the design of an improved Gilbert cell active mixer. The technique was demonstrated on a 1800 MHz SiGe bipolar RF front-end whose LNA achieves a 1.3 dB NF at a bias current of 4.5 mA while the mixer achieves a single-sideband noise figure (SSB NF) of 6.5 dB at only 4.8 mA

Keywords

Ge-Si alloys; UHF amplifiers; UHF integrated circuits; UHF mixers; bipolar analogue integrated circuits; integrated circuit design; integrated circuit noise; semiconductor materials; 1.3 dB; 1800 MHz; 4.5 mA; 4.8 mA; 6.5 dB; Gilbert cell active mixer; SiGe; SiGe bipolar RFIC front-end design; frequency-scalable SiGe bipolar RFIC; low noise amplifier; multi-band RF front-end; optimization method; optimized LNA design; optimum noise figure; Design methodology; Germanium silicon alloys; Low-noise amplifiers; Noise figure; Noise measurement; Optimized production technology; Radio frequency; Radiofrequency amplifiers; Radiofrequency integrated circuits; Silicon germanium;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Custom Integrated Circuits Conference, 2000. CICC. Proceedings of the IEEE 2000

Conference_Location

Orlando, FL

Print_ISBN

0-7803-5809-0

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/CICC.2000.852645

Filename

852645