A novel 2-12GHz 14dBm High Efficiency Power Distributed Amplifier for Ultra-Wideband- Applications Using a Low-Cost SiGe BiCMOS Technology

Author

Sewiolo, Benjamin ; Weigel, Robert

Author_Institution

Institute for Electronics Engineering, University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Cauerstr. 9, 91058, Germany

fYear

2008

fDate

15-20 June 2008

Firstpage

1123

Lastpage

1126

Abstract

In this paper the analysis, design and measurement results of a novel 2-12 GHz power distributed amplifier for ultra-wideband radar and sensing applications is presented. The amplifier is fabricated in a low-cost 0.25 μm SiGe BiCMOS technology with a transit frequency of 25GHz. The circuit integrates four cascode gain cells, which are capacitively coupled to the base line for power optimization. The collector line has been tapered for efficiency improvement. More than 14 dBm have been measured in the desired frequency range with an associated gain of 9 dB and a gain flatness of ±0.5 dB with total power consumption of 250mW. To the authors knowledge, this is the highest output power achieved by a distributed amplifier in SiGe technology in this frequency range. The chip size of the compact amplifier is 1.16mm². Good agreement between simulation and measurement were achieved.

Keywords

BiCMOS integrated circuits; Distributed amplifiers; Frequency; Gain; Germanium silicon alloys; Integrated circuit measurements; Power measurement; Semiconductor device measurement; Silicon germanium; Ultra wideband technology; SiGe BiCMOS integrated circuits; Ultra-Wideband; capacitively coupled; distributed amplifiers; heterojunction bipolar transistors; power amplifiers; spiral inductors; tapered;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Microwave Symposium Digest, 2008 IEEE MTT-S International

Conference_Location

Atlanta, GA, USA

ISSN

0149-645X

Print_ISBN

978-1-4244-1780-3

Electronic_ISBN

0149-645X

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/MWSYM.2008.4633254

Filename

4633254