Staggered Gain for 100+ GHz Broadband Amplifiers

Author

Kim, Joohwa ; Buckwalter, James F.

Author_Institution

Univ. of California-San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA

Volume

46

Issue

5

fYear

2011

fDate

5/1/2011 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

1123

Lastpage

1136

Abstract

A broadband amplifier is realized with cascaded stagger-tuned stages that are equalized for high bandwidth and low gain ripple. The staggered frequency response is demonstrated to improve the transimpedance limit of active circuits. The staggered response is demonstrated with a Darlington feedback amplifier and a constructive wave amplifier, which achieves low group delay. The broadband amplifier is implemented in a 0.12-μm SiGe BiCMOS process and achieves a 3-dB bandwidth of 102 GHz. The gain is 10 dB with 1.5-dB gain-ripple and group-delay variation under ±6 ps over the entire 3-dB bandwidth. The chip occupies an area of 0.29 mm² including the pads and consumes 73 mW from a 2-V supply.

Keywords

BiCMOS integrated circuits; Ge-Si alloys; operational amplifiers; wideband amplifiers; BiCMOS process; Darlington feedback amplifier; broadband amplifier; cascaded stagger-tuned stage; constructive wave amplifier; frequency 102 GHz; gain 1.5 dB; gain 10 dB; power 73 mW; size 0.12 mum; staggered frequency response; voltage 2 V; Bandwidth; Broadband amplifiers; Capacitance; Gain; Impedance; Silicon germanium; Bandwidth enhancement; SiGe BiCMOS; broadband amplifier; low group delay variation; transimpedance amplifier;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Solid-State Circuits, IEEE Journal of

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9200

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/JSSC.2011.2109795

Filename

5733375