Design of a monolithic 30 GHz branch line coupler in SiGe HBT technology using 3D EM simulation

Author

Lee, Jongsoo ; Tretiakov, Youri V. ; Cressler, John D. ; Joseph, Alvin J.

Author_Institution

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

fYear

2004

fDate

8-10 Sept. 2004

Firstpage

274

Lastpage

277

Abstract

We use full 3D EM simulation to optimize the design of a 30 GHz branch line coupler using thin film microstrip lines (TFMS) in a commercial 120 GHz SiGe HBT BiCMOS technology. The effects of various ground plane connections are considered for designing the branch line coupler. With an improper design of the ground plane in the TFMS, the measured S₂₁ shows 7 dB degradation at 30 GHz, in agreement with simulation. A carefully optimized coupler design shows that -4 dB S₂₁/S₃₁ with -15 dB reflection coefficient at 30 GHz should be achievable.

Keywords

bipolar MMIC; circuit optimisation; circuit simulation; computational electromagnetics; heterojunction bipolar transistors; microstrip couplers; silicon; thin film circuits; 30 GHz; 3D EM simulation; BiCMOS technology; design optimization; ground plane connections; monolithic branch line coupler; reflection coefficient; silicon-germanium HBT technology; thin film microstrip lines; BiCMOS integrated circuits; Computational modeling; Computer simulation; Couplings; Design optimization; Frequency measurement; Germanium silicon alloys; Heterojunction bipolar transistors; Microstrip; Silicon germanium;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Silicon Monolithic Integrated Circuits in RF Systems, 2004. Digest of Papers. 2004 Topical Meeting on

Print_ISBN

0-7803-8703-1

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/SMIC.2004.1398222

Filename

1398222