Using saturated SiGe HBTs to realize ultra-low voltage/power X-band low noise amplifiers

Author

Seth, Sachin ; Poh, Chung Hang John ; Thrivikraman, Tushar ; Arora, Rajan ; Cressler, John D.

Author_Institution

Sch. of Electr. & Comput. Eng., Georgia Tech, Atlanta, GA, USA

fYear

2011

fDate

9-11 Oct. 2011

Firstpage

103

Lastpage

106

Abstract

An ultra-low voltage, monolithic 9 GHz (X-band) low noise amplifier has been implemented in 0.13 μm SiGe BiCMOS technology. The SiGe HBTs were intentionally biased in weak saturation (V_CE at 0.5 V). This allows the LNA to operate at 300 K using only 2.4 mW of dc power from a 1 V supply, while delivering 16.7 dB gain and 3.5 dB noise figure at 9 GHz. At 90 K, this SiGe LNA achieves 17.5 dB of gain at only 600 μW of power, record performance for any known X-band LNA operating at sub-ambient temperatures.

Keywords

BiCMOS analogue integrated circuits; Ge-Si alloys; MMIC power amplifiers; bipolar MMIC; field effect MMIC; heterojunction bipolar transistors; low noise amplifiers; microwave bipolar transistors; BiCMOS technology; SiGe; frequency 9 GHz; gain 16.7 dB; gain 17.5 dB; noise figure 3.5 dB; power 2.4 mW; power 600 muW; power X-band low noise amplifiers; saturated HBT; size 0.13 mum; temperature 300 K; temperature 90 K; ultra-low voltage low noise amplifiers; voltage 1 V; Gain; Heterojunction bipolar transistors; Noise figure; Radio frequency; Silicon germanium; Temperature measurement; Cryo-LNA; Low power LNA; SiGe BiCMOS; Weak saturation; X-Band;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Bipolar/BiCMOS Circuits and Technology Meeting (BCTM), 2011 IEEE

Conference_Location

Atlanta, GA

ISSN

1088-9299

Print_ISBN

978-1-61284-165-6

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/BCTM.2011.6082758

Filename

6082758