Codesign of a PA–Antenna Block in Silicon Technology for 80-GHz Radar Application

This brief presents the codesign of a W-band power amplifier (PA) with a dipole antenna using a 0.13-μm SiGe bipolar complementary metal oxide semiconductor (BiCMOS) process. The codesign allows the direct interconnection between the PA and the transmitter (Tx) antenna, suppressing the matching network between the two blocks and contributing to loss reduction, energy efficiency enhancement, and miniaturization. The design and the measured results of the monolithic integrated circuit are reported. The 79-GHz differential PA delivers 17 dBm of maximum output power. The chip consumes 300 mA with a 1.8-V supply voltage. The gain of the dipole antenna is -14 dBi in the forward direction and -8.5 dBi in the backward direction. The PA and the antenna size are 0.7 and 0.75 mm2, respectively. The PA/antenna achieves a maximum power gain of 9.4 dB at 77 GHz and an effective isotropic radiated power of 8.5 dBm.