Design and breakdown behavior of 77GHz variable gain power amplifiers in SiGe-technology

Author

Borutta, K. ; Laemmle, Benjamin ; Wagner, Christoph ; Maurer, Linus ; Weigel, Robert ; Kissinger, Dietmar

Author_Institution

Inst. for Electron. Eng., Univ. of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Erlangen, Germany

fYear

2013

fDate

6-8 Oct. 2013

Firstpage

572

Lastpage

575

Abstract

This paper presents two fully integrated differential programmable power amplifiers for automotive radar applications at 77GHz. The power amplifiers were fabricated in a silicon-germanium technology featuring bipolar transistors with an f_t/f_max of 200GHz/250GHz. Measurements have been performed for different temperatures, in particular at -40°, 27° and 125°. A maximum gain of 10 dB is achieved for both amplifiers at room temperature. In addition the breakdown behavior of both amplifiers has been investigated. The building blocks of the amplifiers, which are affected by the breakdown effect had been indentified and design guidelines to avoid breakdown effects in power amplifiers are presented.

Keywords

Ge-Si alloys; bipolar transistors; power amplifiers; road vehicle radar; SiGe-technology; automotive radar applications; bipolar transistors; breakdown behavior; design; frequency 77 GHz; fully integrated differential programmable power amplifiers; variable gain power amplifiers; Current measurement; Electric breakdown; Gain; Mirrors; Silicon; Temperature measurement; Transistors; Millimeter-wave integrated circuits; Silicon Germanium(SiGe); breakdown effect; differential power amplifier;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Microwave Integrated Circuits Conference (EuMIC), 2013 European

Conference_Location

Nuremberg

Type

conf

Filename

6687913