Millimeter-Wave Wafer-Scale Silicon BiCMOS Power Amplifiers Using Free-Space Power Combining

Author

Atesal, Yusuf A. ; Cetinoneri, Berke ; Chang, Michael ; Alhalabi, Ramadan ; Rebeiz, Gabriel M.

Author_Institution

Electr. & Comput. Eng. Dept., Univ. of California at San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA

Volume

59

Issue

4

fYear

2011

fDate

4/1/2011 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

954

Lastpage

965

Abstract

This paper presents the first millimeter-wave wafer-scale power-amplifier array implemented in a 0.13-μ m BiCMOS technology. The power combining is done in the free-space using high efficiency on-chip antennas. A 3 × 3 power-amplifier array is demonstrated with an equivalent isotropic radiated power of 33-35 dBm at 90-98 GHz. This results in a total on-chip power of 21-23 dBm and a total radiated power of 17.5-19.5 dBm. The measured patterns of the array show single-mode operation and ~100% free-space power-combining efficiency with a 3-dB beamwidth of 28° and a directivity of 15.5 dB (gain of 12 dB). The total power-combining efficiency including the antenna losses is 45±10%. The application areas are in millimeter-wave transmitters and wafer-scale phased arrays.

Keywords

BiCMOS integrated circuits; MIMIC; elemental semiconductors; millimetre wave amplifiers; power combiners; silicon; free-space power combining; frequency 90 GHz to 98 GHz; millimeter-wave transmitters; millimeter-wave wafer-scale power-amplifier array; millimeter-wave wafer-scale silicon BiCMOS; size 0.13 mum; wafer-scale phased arrays; Arrays; Coplanar waveguides; Microstrip antenna arrays; Radio frequency; Silicon; System-on-a-chip; Equivalent isotropic radiated power (EIRP); SiGe BiCMOS; phased arrays; power amplifiers; quasi-optical combining;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Microwave Theory and Techniques, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9480

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/TMTT.2011.2108313

Filename

5719536