A monolithic CMOS automatic biasing system for 40GHz multistage HEMT

Author

De Blasi, M. ; Pierri, M. ; D´Amico, S. ; De Matteis, M. ; Baschirotto, A. ; Bau, A. ; Passerini, Andrea ; Gervasi, M. ; Zannoni, M.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Innovation Eng., Univ. of Salento, Lecce, Italy

fYear

2013

fDate

19-23 May 2013

Firstpage

1708

Lastpage

1711

Abstract

The design of an automatic biasing system for High-Electron-Mobility-Transistors is here presented (HEMT-Biasing-System, HBS). The HBS automatically regulates the operating point of an off-chip multistage HEMT block. A proper automatic algorithm is implemented in order to maximize the HEMT transconductance (g_m) efficiency (defined as g_m/I_DS ratio). This is an important feature in several HEMT-based systems, since they are used in LNA stages, where noise/power trade-off is a key aspect. Interfacing CMOS and HEMT technologies features several design issues, like negative gate-source voltage (to be managed by a CMOS circuits for HEMT switch-off operation) and closed-loop stability (due to the presence of very large off-chip capacitance - 100nF). The System here presented manages all these issues with tailored circuit solutions. A prototype has been designed in CMOS 0.35μm technology. It consumes 6.2mW (excluding the current consumption for HEMT driving).

Keywords

CMOS integrated circuits; MOSFET; circuit stability; field effect MIMIC; high electron mobility transistors; integrated circuit design; integrated circuit noise; low noise amplifiers; semiconductor device noise; HBS; HEMT switch-off operation; HEMT transconductance efficiency; HEMT-biasing-system; LNA; capacitance 100 nF; closed-loop stability; current consumption; frequency 40 GHz; high-electron-mobility-transistor; monolithic CMOS automatic biasing system; multistage HEMT; negative gate-source voltage; noise-power trade-off; off-chip multistage HEMT block; power 6.2 mW; size 0.35 mum; CMOS integrated circuits; CMOS technology; Capacitance; HEMTs; Logic gates; Microwave filters; Switching circuits; HEMT; Operating Point; gm/IDS ratio; mm-wave;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Circuits and Systems (ISCAS), 2013 IEEE International Symposium on

Conference_Location

Beijing

ISSN

0271-4302

Print_ISBN

978-1-4673-5760-9

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/ISCAS.2013.6572193

Filename

6572193