A switchable-core SiGe HBT low-noise amplifier for millimeter-wave radiometer applications

Author

Ulusoy, A. Cagri ; Schmid, Robert L. ; Coen, Christopher ; Cressler, John D.

Author_Institution

Sch. of Electr. & Comput. Eng., Georgia Inst. of Technol., Atlanta, GA, USA

fYear

2014

fDate

19-23 Jan. 2014

Firstpage

22

Lastpage

24

Abstract

This work presents a switchable-core SiGe HBT low-noise amplifier topology that can greatly improve the performance of millimeter-wave Dicke radiometer front-ends. In the presented topology, instead of implementing a Dicke switch preceding the amplifier, a switchable core is proposed that enables Dicke radiometer operation without any insertion loss penalty and substantially improved isolation. A prototype amplifier is realized in a 90 nm SiGe BiCMOS technology. The measured results indicate the switchable amplifier core can provide Dicke radiometer functionality with minimum performance degradation.

Keywords

BiCMOS analogue integrated circuits; Ge-Si alloys; field effect MIMIC; heterojunction bipolar transistors; low noise amplifiers; millimetre wave amplifiers; radiometers; BiCMOS technology; Dicke switch; SiGe; insertion loss penalty; millimeter wave Dicke radiometer; size 90 nm; switchable-core HBT low noise amplifier topology; Microwave radiometry; Millimeter wave measurements; Millimeter wave technology; Noise measurement; Silicon germanium; Switches; Topology; Millimeter wave integrated circuits; SiGe; low-noise amplifiers; radiometers; silicon-germanium;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Silicon Monolithic Integrated Circuits in Rf Systems (SiRF), 2014 IEEE 14th Topical Meeting on

Conference_Location

Newport Beach, CA

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/SiRF.2014.6828508

Filename

6828508