SiGe building blocks for on-chip X-Band T/R modules

This paper presents a T/R (transmit/receive) module for X-Band phased arrays using a 0.25 μm SiGe BiCMOS process technology. The T/R module consists of a T/R switch, a SPDT switch, a power amplifier (PA), and a low noise amplifier (LNA). The T/R switch and SPDT switch are implemented using CMOS transistors whereas the PA and LNA are based on SiGe HBTs. The designed T/R switch achieves minimum 3.2 dB insertion loss, maximum 34.8 dB isolation and has a P_1dB of 28.2 dBm at 10 GHz. The SPDT switch has less than 2.2 dB loss at X-Band and occupies 0.17 mm² chip area. The PA achieves a small-signal gain of 25 dB and a saturated output power of 23.2 dBm with 25% PAE in a 3 GHz bandwidth. Lastly, the LNA has a gain more than 19 dB and 1.65 dB (mean) noise figure at X-Band. More detailed analysis with extended results and utilized techniques will be presented at the conference.