Power-Efficient W -Band (92-98 GHz) Phased-Array Transmit and Receive Elements With Quadrature-Hybrid-Based Passive Phase Interpolator

• Published in: IEEE journal of solid-state circuits 2018-06, Vol.53 (6), p.1678-1693
• Main Authors: Afroz, Sadia, Kim, Hyunchul, Koh, Kwang-Jin
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: <italic xmlns:ali="http://www.niso.org/schemas/ali/1.0/" xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">W -band; BiCMOS; BiCMOS integrated circuits; Couplers; Gain; hybrid coupler; phase shifter (PS); phased array; Phased arrays; quadrature coupler; Sensor arrays; Silicon germanium; Switches; vector modulator (VM)
• ISSN: 0018-9200; 1558-173X
• DOI: 10.1109/JSSC.2018.2810178

This paper presents a power-efficient phased-array transmit and receive (T/R) channels adopting phase shifters (PSs) utilizing quadrature-hybrid-based power-domain phase interpolator. The W-band T/R channels are implemented in GlobalFoundries 0.13- \mu \text{m} SiGe BiCMOS process (GF8XP) for large-scale phased-array applications. At 94 GHz, the proposed Rx channel achieves 137-dB \cdot Hz dynamic range (DR) with 18-mW dc power consumption ( P_{\text {diss}} ), one of the smallest P_{\text {diss}} at W-band. The measured Rx channel gain is 17-23 dB with 5.8-6.6-dB noise figure (NF) over 92-98 GHz. The rms gain error and rms phase error in the Rx channel are less than 2 dB and 6°, respectively, at 92-100 GHz. The input P_{-1\text {dB}} is −31 dBm at 94 GHz. The Tx channel produces 7.4-dBm saturated output power with 49.5-mW P_{\mathrm{ diss}} at 94 GHz resulting in 11% of collector efficiency, one of the highest Tx channel efficiencies reported so far. The P_{\mathrm{ diss}} at quiescent bias point of the Tx channel is 26 mW. The measured Tx channel gain is 7.5-12 dB and the rms gain error is < 1.28 dB over 85-105 GHz. The measured rms phase error in the Tx channel is < 1.5° at 94 GHz and remains lower than 8° when driving the Tx channel up to near the power saturation. The peak collector efficiency and PAE of the integrated class-AB power amplifier is 23.5% and 18.2%, respectively, at 94 GHz, one of the highest efficiency performances at W-band. The chip sizes of the Rx and Tx channels excluding I/O pads are 1.2 \times 0.55 mm 2 and 1.4 \times 0.55 mm 2 , respectively.