Title :
Silicon-germanium BiCMOS HBT technology for wireless power amplifier applications
Author :
Johnson, Jeffrey B. ; Joseph, Alvin J. ; Sheridan, David C. ; Maladi, Ramana M. ; Brandt, Per-Olof ; Persson, Jonas ; Andersson, Jesper ; Bjorneklett, Are ; Persson, Ulrika ; Abasi, Fariborz ; Tilly, Lars
Author_Institution :
IBM Corp., Essex Junction, VT, USA
Abstract :
This paper discusses and illustrates the key device design issues for SiGe BiCMOS HBTs suitable for wireless power amplifier (PA) applications. Experimental results addressing ruggedness, ac performance, and safe operating area for high-breakdown SiGe HBTs built in several generations of BiCMOS technology are presented. Implications of recent high-performance SiGe HBT scaling achievements for BiCMOS technologies targeting wireless PA applications are considered. Circuit results for GSM, PCS, GPRS, and EDGE front-end modules have been obtained. A one-chip solution is demonstrated, including control circuitry and switching functionality, that supports all GPRS, PCS, and EDGE modes featuring output power at 33.8 dBm and overall power added efficiency of 37% withstanding voltage standing wave ratio conditions of 15:1.
Keywords :
BiCMOS integrated circuits; Ge-Si alloys; UHF integrated circuits; UHF power amplifiers; cellular radio; heterojunction bipolar transistors; semiconductor materials; BiCMOS HBT technology; EDGE front-end modules; GPRS front-end modules; GSM front-end modules; PCS front-end modules; SiGe; SiGe HBT; control circuitry; control switching; silicon-germanium technology; wireless power amplifier; AC generators; BiCMOS integrated circuits; GSM; Germanium silicon alloys; Ground penetrating radar; Heterojunction bipolar transistors; Personal communication networks; Power amplifiers; Silicon germanium; Voltage control; BiCMOS; HBTs; SiGe; silicon-germanium technology; wireless power amplifiers;
Journal_Title :
Solid-State Circuits, IEEE Journal of
DOI :
10.1109/JSSC.2004.833570
