Novel RF loss compensation in SiGe/BiCMOS HBT cascaded single-stage distributed amplifiers for RF front-end applications

This paper explicitly demonstrates the first SiGe/BiCMOS HBT cascaded single-stage amplifiers, which combine the RF loss compensation and active load to achieve the ultra-high gain over one decade of bandwidth using commercially available AMS standard digital 0.8 μm SiGe/BiCMOS process. Attenuation of input and inter-stage transmission lines in CSDAs are compensated by means of active impedance transformation. The novel SiGe/BiCMOS CSDAs have shown 21 dB power gain with power flatness of ± 0.5 dB and return loss less than -10 dB for both input and output ports over the frequency range from 0.5 GHz to 10 GHz.