High power and linearity CMOS RFIC transmit-receive switch for ultra-Wideband radar and communication systems

We report on the development of an ultrawideband fully-integrated T/R switch, fabricated on a commercial standard 0.18-mum CMOS process, with unprecedented performance. It occupies a very small die area of 230 mum times 250 mum. The new T/R switch employs an ultrabroadband topology based on the synthetic transmission-line concept with on-chip spiral inductors. Simultaneously floating and applying negative bias to the bulk or positive bias to the drain are implemented to enhance the linearity and power handling of the switch. The developed CMOS T/R switch exhibits an insertion loss lower than 1 dB from DC to 18 GHz and less than 2.5 dB up to 20 GHz. The measured isolation is between 32-60 dB, 25-32 dB, and 25-27 dB and P_1dB varies between 25.4-26.2 dBm, 22.6-25.4 dBm, and 19.8-22.6 dBm from DC-10 GHz, 10-18 GHz, and 18-20 GHz, respectively. The measured input third-order intercept point (IIP3) reaches as high as 41 dBm.