A Multistage, Parallel-path Power Amplifier in Silicon Germanide Bipolar Technology for Mm-wave Wireless Applications

A Multistage, Parallel-path Power Amplifier in Silicon Germanide Bipolar Technology for Mm-wave Wireless Applications
Author: Tak Shun Dickson Cheung
Publisher:
Total Pages: 368
Release: 2007
Genre:
ISBN: 9780494394519

Wireless transmitters at mm-wave frequencies usually require costly III-V GaAs power amplifiers that must be packaged separately from mainstream silicon CMOS and BiCMOS circuits. This thesis studies the prospect of an integrable 3-stage power amplifier in a 100GHzfMAX 0.2microm SiGe HBT technology to facilitate cost-effective implementations of single-chip transceivers for 21--26GHz wireless applications. The amplifier utilizes an all common-base differential topology to maximize the power gain and extend the VCC supply to BVCEO of the transistors (1.8V). New on-chip components, such as interconnects with floating differential shields, self-shielding transformers and 4-way power combining/dividing baluns provide inter-stage coupling and single-ended interfaces at the input and output. On-chip ground isolation, low-inductance base interconnects and base ballast resistors are employed to ensure electrical and thermal stability. The current ratings of the on-chip passive components are designed to withstand the expected DC currents up to 110°C. The 2.45x2.45mm2 MMIC was mounted as a flip-chip and tested without a heatsink. It delivers 23dBm, 19.75% PAE at 22GHz, and 2ldBm, 13% PAE at 24GHz. The power gain is 19dB at a small-signal level and over 15dB at the maximum output power.

Silicon-Germanium Heterojunction Bipolar Transistors for Mm-wave Systems Technology, Modeling and Circuit Applications

Silicon-Germanium Heterojunction Bipolar Transistors for Mm-wave Systems Technology, Modeling and Circuit Applications
Author: Niccolò Rinaldi
Publisher: CRC Press
Total Pages: 377
Release: 2022-09-01
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 1000794407

The semiconductor industry is a fundamental building block of the new economy, there is no area of modern life untouched by the progress of nanoelectronics. The electronic chip is becomingan ever-increasing portion of system solutions, starting initially from less than 5% in the 1970 microcomputer era, to more than 60% of the final cost of a mobile telephone, 50% of the price of a personal computer (representing nearly 100% of the functionalities) and 30% of the price of a monitor in the early 2000’s.Interest in utilizing the (sub-)mm-wave frequency spectrum for commercial and research applications has also been steadily increasing. Such applications, which constitute a diverse but sizeable future market, span a large variety of areas such as health, material science, mass transit, industrial automation, communications, and space exploration.Silicon-Germanium Heterojunction Bipolar Transistors for mm-Wave Systems Technology, Modeling and Circuit Applications provides an overview of results of the DOTSEVEN EU research project, and as such focusses on key material developments for mm-Wave Device Technology. It starts with the motivation at the beginning of the project and a summary of its major achievements. The subsequent chapters provide a detailed description of the obtained research results in the various areas of process development, device simulation, compact device modeling, experimental characterization, reliability, (sub-)mm-wave circuit design and systems.

Millimeter-Wave Power Amplifiers

Millimeter-Wave Power Amplifiers
Author: Jaco du Preez
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 367
Release: 2017-10-05
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 3319621661

This book provides a detailed review of millimeter-wave power amplifiers, discussing design issues and performance limitations commonly encountered in light of the latest research. Power amplifiers, which are able to provide high levels of output power and linearity while being easily integrated with surrounding circuitry, are a crucial component in wireless microwave systems. The book is divided into three parts, the first of which introduces readers to mm-wave wireless systems and power amplifiers. In turn, the second focuses on design principles and EDA concepts, while the third discusses future trends in power amplifier research. The book provides essential information on mm-wave power amplifier theory, as well as the implementation options and technologies involved in their effective design, equipping researchers, circuit designers and practicing engineers to design, model, analyze, test and implement high-performance, spectrally clean and energy-efficient mm-wave systems.

RF and mm-Wave Power Generation in Silicon

RF and mm-Wave Power Generation in Silicon
Author: Hua Wang
Publisher: Academic Press
Total Pages: 578
Release: 2015-12-10
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 0124095224

RF and mm-Wave Power Generation in Silicon presents the challenges and solutions of designing power amplifiers at RF and mm-Wave frequencies in a silicon-based process technology. It covers practical power amplifier design methodologies, energy- and spectrum-efficient power amplifier design examples in the RF frequency for cellular and wireless connectivity applications, and power amplifier and power generation designs for enabling new communication and sensing applications in the mm-Wave and THz frequencies. With this book you will learn: Power amplifier design fundamentals and methodologies Latest advances in silicon-based RF power amplifier architectures and designs and their integration in wireless communication systems State-of-the-art mm-Wave/THz power amplifier and power generation circuits and systems in silicon Extensive coverage from fundamentals to advanced design topics, focusing on various layers of abstraction: from device modeling and circuit design strategy to advanced digital and mixed-signal architectures for highly efficient and linear power amplifiers New architectures for power amplifiers in the cellar and wireless connectivity covering detailed design methodologies and state-of-the-art performances Detailed design techniques, trade-off analysis and design examples for efficiency enhancement at power back-off and linear amplification for spectrally-efficient non-constant envelope modulations Extensive coverage of mm-Wave power-generation techniques from the early days of the 60 GHz research to current state-of the-art reconfigurable, digital mm-Wave PA architectures Detailed analysis of power generation challenges in the higher mm-Wave and THz frequencies and novel technical solutions for a wide range for potential applications, including ultrafast wireless communication to sensing, imaging and spectroscopy Contributions from the world-class experts from both academia and industry

Design of Silicon Power Ampliers and Arrays for Millimeter Wave Applications

Design of Silicon Power Ampliers and Arrays for Millimeter Wave Applications
Author: Bassel Hanafi
Publisher:
Total Pages: 115
Release: 2014
Genre:
ISBN: 9781321451825

With emerging millimeter wave applications including automotive radars, wireless transmission of high-definition content, and possibly 5G mobile communications, low cost and high performance power amplifiers are key for enabling a commercial mass market. Silicon technologies offer cost advantages but typically suffer from low breakdown voltage and low Q passive elements yielding low power density and low efficiency. This thesis presents millimeter wave power amplifiers implemented in main stream silicon technologies. The task of obtaining large output power from low breakdown silicon devices is addressed by the use of stacking and power combining techniques. The design of a Q-band amplifier implemented in IBM 0.13um SiGe HBT process featuring on-chip corporate combining is first described. Stacking of bipolar transistors is introduced, together with novel low impedance biasing circuits to enable high breakdown voltage while extending the output swings. The fabricated amplifier delivered 24.7 dBm of maximum output power at 39 GHz, and 6.5% efficiency at 5.2 V without degradation. Alternatively, free-space combining can eliminate lossy on-chip combiners allowing for higher power and efficiency. A chip of 8 unit amplifiers implemented in 45nm CMOS SOI feeding a 2x2 array of differentially-fed patch antennas is demonstrated. With this chip, using CMOS stacking techniques, high output power (28 dBm) was achieved from a 3-stage amplifier operating at 45 GHz. When coupled to the antennas, the array provided an equivalent isotropic radiated power (EIRP) of 40 dBm (10 W), and a larger system comprising 4 chips feeding a 2x8 array was shown to deliver an EIRP of 50 dBm (100 W) at 45 GHz, while demonstrating, for the first time, a total RF power of 33 dBm which is a record in silicon at this frequency. The estimated peak PAE for both arrays are 13.5% and 10.7%, respectively. Finally, power amplifiers implemented in SOI technology can suffer from severe self-heating. The thermal behavior of CMOS SOI PAs is evaluated using 3D thermal simulations, and the effects of the back-end interconnect as well as the layout on the overall thermal resistance are discussed. The models were verified against measurements for an individual FET using the output conductance method. For a stacked-FET PA fabricated in 45nm CMOS SOI, the models reveal an excessive temperature rise of 150C for the FETs at maximum power, hence simple ideas were proposed to improve the thermal resistance of SOI circuits, with limited impact on electrical performance.

Reconfigurable RF Power Amplifiers on Silicon for Wireless Handsets

Reconfigurable RF Power Amplifiers on Silicon for Wireless Handsets
Author: Laurent Leyssenne
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 180
Release: 2011-01-11
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 9400704259

Reconfigurable RF Power Amplifiers on Silicon for Wireless Handsets is intended to designers and researchers who have to tackle the efficiency/linearity trade-off in modern RF transmitters so as to extend their battery lifetime. High data rate 3G/4G standards feature broad channel bandwidths, high dynamic range and critical envelope variations which generally forces the power amplifier (PA) to operate in a low efficiency “backed-off” regime. Classic efficiency enhancement techniques such as Envelope Elimination and Restoration reveal to be little compliant with handset-dedicated PA implementation due to their channel-bandwidth-limited behavior and their increased die area consumption and/or bill-of-material. The architectural advances that are proposed in this book circumvent these issues since they put the stress on low die-area /low power-consumption control circuitry. The advantages of silicon over III/V technologies are highlighted by several analogue signal processing techniques that can be implemented on-chip with a power amplifier. System-level and transistor-level simulations are combined to illustrate the principles of the proposed power adaptive solutions. Measurement on BICMOS demonstrators allows validating the functionality of dynamic linearity/efficiency management. In Reconfigurable RF Power Amplifiers on Silicon for Wireless Handsets, PA designers will find a review of technologies, architectures and theoretical formalisms (Volterra series...) that are traditionally related to PA design. Specific issues that one encounters in power amplifiers (such as thermal / memory effects, stability, VSWR sensitivity...) and the way of overcoming them are also extensively considered throughout this book.

High Efficiency Power Amplifier Design for 28 GHz 5G Transmitters

High Efficiency Power Amplifier Design for 28 GHz 5G Transmitters
Author: Nourhan Elsayed
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 105
Release: 2022-02-02
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 3030927466

This book introduces power amplifier design in 22nm FDSOI CMOS dedicated towards 5G applications at 28 GHz and presents 4 state-of-the-art power amplifier designs. The authors discuss power amplifier performance metrics, design trade-offs, and presents different power amplifier classes utilizing efficiency enhancement techniques at 28 GHz. The book presents the design process from theory, simulation, layout, and finally measurement results.

mm-Wave Silicon Power Amplifiers and Transmitters

mm-Wave Silicon Power Amplifiers and Transmitters
Author: Hossein Hashemi
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 471
Release: 2016-04-04
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 1316395367

Build high-performance, spectrally clean, energy-efficient mm-wave power amplifiers and transmitters with this cutting-edge guide to designing, modeling, analysing, implementing and testing new mm-wave systems. Suitable for students, researchers and practicing engineers, this self-contained guide provides in-depth coverage of state-of-the-art semiconductor devices and technologies, linear and nonlinear power amplifier technologies, efficient power combining systems, circuit concepts, system architectures and system-on-a-chip realizations. The world's foremost experts from industry and academia cover all aspects of the design process, from device technologies to system architectures. Accompanied by numerous case studies highlighting practical design techniques, tradeoffs and pitfalls, this is a superb resource for those working with high-frequency systems.