Title :
A Trimmable Cascaded Distributed Amplifier With 1.6 THz Gain-Bandwidth Product
Author :
Fritsche, David ; Tretter, Gregor ; Carta, Corrado ; Ellinger, Frank
Author_Institution :
Dept. of Circuit Design & Network Theor., Tech. Univ. Dresden, Dresden, Germany
Abstract :
This letter presents a distributed amplifier fabricated in a 0.13- μm SiGe BiCMOS technology for applications with large bandwidth requirements. The main design goals of large bandwidth and high gain are achieved by cascading three bandwidth-optimized traveling-wave amplifier stages. The termination resistance variations, which have large influence on the gain, are compensated by implementing electrically trimmable resistors. Measurements of the amplifier trimmed for optimum gain flatness show a gain of 18.7 dB over a 3-dB bandwidth of 180 GHz. To the authors´ best knowledge, the resulting gain-bandwidth product of 1.6 THz is the highest reported to date.
Keywords :
BiCMOS integrated circuits; Ge-Si alloys; MIMIC; distributed amplifiers; travelling wave amplifiers; SiGe; bandwidth 180 GHz; bandwidth-optimized traveling-wave amplifier stage; electrically-trimmable resistors; gain 18.7 dB; gain-bandwidth product; optimum gain flatness; silicon-germanium BiCMOS technology; size 0.13 mum; termination resistance variation; trimmable cascaded distributed amplifier; Bandwidth; Gain; Integrated circuits; Noise measurement; Power transmission lines; Resistance; Resistors; BiCMOS integrated circuits; broadband amplifiers; distributed amplifiers; millimeter-wave integrated circuits;
Journal_Title :
Terahertz Science and Technology, IEEE Transactions on
DOI :
10.1109/TTHZ.2015.2482940