ISBN 9783843917384

978-3-8439-1738-4, Reihe Elektrotechnik

Ismail Nasr
Ultra-Broadband Millimeter-Wave Circuits and Systems in Silicon-Germanium Technology

141 Seiten, Dissertation Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (2014), Softcover, A5

Zusammenfassung / Abstract

Driven by the recent advancement in silicon technology and the ever growing demand for more bandwidth propelled by the consumer market, mm-wave (30-100 GHz) circuits and systems are increasingly gaining attention. The work presented in this thesis is mainly focused on the design of various SiGe HBT based ultra-broadband circuits and systems. In doing so, several novel mm-wave systems with extremely high bandwidths targeting different mm-wave applications are demonstrated.

Three wide tuning range mm-wave VCO circuits, operating at different frequency bands (60, 77, and 120 GHz), are demonstrated in two different SiGe HBT technologies.

The 77 GHz VCO achieves a record high tuning range of 35% while maintaining high output power and low phase noise performance. Moreover, a novel quadrature VCO topology is presented which is suited for low voltage mm-wave systems.

An integrated frequency agile 70-90 GHz quadrature receiver targeting the two Eband point-to-point communication bands and the automotive radar band is shown. Each of the chip’s receiver I/Q paths shows a measured conversion gain above 19 dB and an input referred 1 dB compression point of -22 dBm. The receiver’s measured noise figure stays below 11 dB over the complete frequency range. Furthermore, the receiver has a measured IF bandwidth of 6 GHz.

Furthermore, an octave bandwidth 50-100 GHz frequency synthesizer based on a single VCO core is demonstrated. A maximum output power between +7 and +12 dBm and an output phase noise between -83 and -96 dBc/Hz at 1MHz offset are measured over the complete output frequency range. Based on the frequency synthesizer a highly integrated chipset is presented, which to the author’s knowledge achieves the highest recorded operational frequency range. The chipset serves as a proof of concept for universal mm-wave solutions that can be tuned to perform within different applications.

Finally, highly integrated single and dual port mm-wave vector network analyzer chips are demonstrated. Both VNAs are capable of operating over an extremely high frequency range while offering high dynamic range. The functionality of the VNAs is verified by the complex S-parameter measurement of external devices. Furthermore, broadband integrated sensors are used in conjunction with the VNA chips to perform wideband permittivity sensing of different dielectric materials, offering a compact agile solution for both medical and industrial applications.