A high-linearity broadband 55 – 77 GHz differential low-noise amplifier with 20 dB gain in SiGe technology

Author

Kissinger, Dietmar ; Aufinger, Klaus ; Meister, Thomas F. ; Maurer, Linus ; Weigel, Robert

Author_Institution

Inst. for Electron. Eng., Univ. of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Erlangen, Germany

fYear

2010

fDate

7-10 Dec. 2010

Firstpage

1501

Lastpage

1504

Abstract

This paper presents a broadband differential current re-use low-noise amplifier with 30% fractional bandwidth at a center frequency of 66 GHz. The circuit has been manufactured in an advanced SiGe:C HBT technology with f_t/f_max = 220/285 GHz. The amplifier is unconditionally stable and achieves a maximum differential gain of 19.7 dB while operating over a 3-dB bandwidth of 22 GHz. At the upper corner frequency of 77 GHz the amplifier exhibits a noise figure of 5.8 dB and linearity measurements show a 1-dB output referred compression point above +3 dBm. The circuit consumes 40 mW from a 3.3 V supply and occupies a chip area of 728 × 728 μm² including bond pads.

Keywords

Ge-Si alloys; carbon; circuit noise; differential amplifiers; heterojunction bipolar transistors; low noise amplifiers; millimetre wave amplifiers; semiconductor materials; HBT technology; SiGe:C; current reuse low-noise amplifier; frequency 55 GHz to 77 GHz; gain 20 dB; high-linearity broadband differential low-noise amplifier; noise figure; power 40 mW; voltage 3.3 V; Broadband communication; CMOS integrated circuits; Frequency measurement; Gain; Noise; Silicon; Silicon germanium; Broadband amplifiers; differential amplifiers; heterojunction bipolar transistors; silicon compounds;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Microwave Conference Proceedings (APMC), 2010 Asia-Pacific

Conference_Location

Yokohama

Print_ISBN

978-1-4244-7590-2

Electronic_ISBN

978-1-902339-22-2

Type

conf

Filename

5728168