Title :
Advancing silicon mm-wave transmitter ICs for satellite communications
Author :
Palmer, W.D. ; Abdomerovic, I. ; Asbeck, P.M. ; LaRocca, T. ; Raman, S.
Author_Institution :
Defense Adv. Res. Projects Agency, Arlington, VA, USA
Abstract :
Scaling of silicon (Si)-based volume production technologies has resulted in transmitter operating frequencies in the millimeter-wave (mm-wave) region (30 GHz-300 GHz). The DARPA ELASTx program was started with a goal of leveraging the Si technologies to create watt-level linear and efficient transmitter ICs. This paper provides an overview of the program and highlights three recent notable results: a 19 dBm W-band power amplifier (PA) with power-added efficiency (PAE) of 14%, a 20.8 dBm D-band PA with PAE of 7.6%, and a fully integrated 94 GHz system-on-chip transmitter that generates 64-QAM signals with 3.9% EVM and 50 dBc ACPR at data rate of 1.05 Gbps and output power of 10 dBm. This technology has applications in low-cost satellite communications terminals such as the Advanced Extremely High Frequency (AEHF) system.
Keywords :
elemental semiconductors; millimetre wave integrated circuits; millimetre wave power amplifiers; radio transmitters; satellite communication; AEHF system; D-band PA; DARPA ELASTx program; PAE; W-band power amplifier; advanced extremely high frequency system; bit rate 1.05 Gbit/s; data rate; frequency 30 GHz to 300 GHz; frequency 94 GHz; low-cost satellite communications terminals; power-added efficiency; silicon millimetre-wave transmitter IC; silicon-based volume production technologies; watt-level linear transmitter IC; Microwave amplifiers; Power amplifiers; Power generation; Satellites; Silicon; System-on-chip; Transmitters; AEHF; D-band; Q-band; W-band; communications; integration; millimeter-wave; power amplifier; satellite; silicon; system-on-a-chip; tactical; transmitters;
Conference_Titel :
Microwave and RF Conference (IMaRC), 2014 IEEE International
Conference_Location :
Bangalore
DOI :
10.1109/IMaRC.2014.7038967
