HBT low-noise performance in a 0.18 /spl mu/m SiGe BiCMOS technology

Author

Greenberg, D.R. ; Ahlgren, D. ; Freeman, G. ; Subbanna, S. ; Radisic, V. ; Harvey, D.S. ; Webster, C. ; Larson, L.

Author_Institution

IBM Thomas J. Watson Res. Center, Yorktown Heights, NY, USA

Volume

1

fYear

2000

fDate

11-16 June 2000

Firstpage

9

Abstract

Noise figure and gain are critical parameters in the design of any product featuring a high-frequency receiver. We present here for the first time a noise and gain characterization of HBTs fabricated in a development version of IBM´s new 90 GHz, 0.18 /spl mu/m-generation SiGe BiCMOS process with copper interconnects. At 2 GHz, we report a noise figure of less than 0.4 dB and an associated gain of 14 dB, a significant (0.3-0.5 dB) improvement over prior SiGe and GaAs state of the art in a commercial process. At 10 GHz, we observe a noise figure of 1.45 dB, an approximately 0.7 dB improvement over previous offerings. This performance makes the 0.18 /spl mu/m SiGe BiCMOS technology attractive for RF, analog, and mixed-signal circuit design.

Keywords

BiCMOS integrated circuits; MMIC; UHF integrated circuits; copper; heterojunction bipolar transistors; integrated circuit noise; integrated circuit technology; mixed analogue-digital integrated circuits; semiconductor device noise; 0.18 micron; 0.4 to 1.45 dB; 14 dB; 2 to 10 GHz; 90 GHz; Cu; Cu interconnects; HBT low-noise performance; IBM BiCMOS process; RF circuit design; SiGe; SiGe BiCMOS technology; analog circuit design; commercial process; gain characterization; mixed-signal circuit design; noise characterization; BiCMOS integrated circuits; Copper; Gain; Gallium arsenide; Germanium silicon alloys; Heterojunction bipolar transistors; Integrated circuit interconnections; Noise figure; Product design; Silicon germanium;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Microwave Symposium Digest. 2000 IEEE MTT-S International

Conference_Location

Boston, MA, USA

ISSN

0149-645X

Print_ISBN

0-7803-5687-X

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/MWSYM.2000.860871

Filename

860871