Sébastien Chartier

Monolithic Integration of a Folded Dipole Antenna With a 24-GHz Receiver in SiGe HBT Technology

The integration of an on-chip folded dipole antenna with a monolithic 24-GHz receiver manufactured in a 0.8-mum SiGe HBT process is presented. A high-resistivity silicon substrate (1000 Omega ldr cm) is used for the implemented circuit to improve the efficiency of the integrated antenna. Crosstalk between the antenna and spiral inductors is analyzed and isolation techniques are described. The receiver, including the receive and an optional transmit antenna, requires a chip area of 4.5 mm2 and provides 30-dB conversion gain at 24 GHz with a power consumption of 960 mW.

Isolation issues in multifunctional Si/SiGe ICs at 24 GHz

In this paper, the authors present the study of isolation issues appearing within circuits realized on 20 Ωcm silicon substrate and at high frequencies. Several aspects of substrate noise injection and reception have beenanalyzed. Experimental results, based on test structures, have been used to give an estimate of substrate coupling noise influence. Several techniques are described in order to improve the isolation within circuits. The isolation in a fully integrated, fully differential 24 GHz oscillator/16:1 divider block, which uses these methods, is presented.

Fully Integrated Millimeter-Wave VCO with 32% Tuning Range

In this paper, the authors present a fully integrated VCO with 32% tuning range centered at 38.9 GHz. The VCO was designed using a commercially available, inexpensive 0.8 μm Si/SiGe HBT technology with fT and fmax of 80 and 90 GHz, respectively. It consumes 195 mW DC power and provides an output power of more than 5 dBm. A phase noise of -93 dBc/Hz at 1 MHz offset was measured for the free running VCO.

Highly Compact 3.1 - 10.6 GHz UWB LNA in SiGe HBT Technology

We present the design, implementation and measurement of a low noise amplifier (LNA) in a low cost 0.8 mum SiGe heterojunction bipolar technology (HBT). The measured noise figure is between 2.1 dB and 2.6 dB in the FCC-allocated bandwidth for ultra-wideband (UWB) systems. The circuit delivers 19.6 dB peak gain with gain variations of 1.3 dB within the entire band from 3.1 to 10.6 GHz. Broadband noise and power matching has been achieved with a cascode topology using resistive shunt feedback in combination with a diode DC level shifter. The measured input IP3 is -14.1 dBm with 10.3 mA total current from a 3.5 V supply. AH performance characteristics are comparable to the best reported UWB LNAs but come at a drastically smaller occupied die area of 0.13 mm2.

A fully integrated fully differential low-noise amplifier for short range automotive radar using a SiGe:C BiCMOS technology

A fully integrated fully differential low-noise amplifier for 79 GHz short range radar applications using a highspeed SiGe:C BiCMOS technology is presented. The integrated circuit uses thin-film microstrip lines and exhibits compact design (530 times 690 mum2), low power consumption (90 mW at 3 V supply voltage), high gain (13 dB gain at 81 GHz), good linearity and reverse isolation. In order to ease the measurements of the circuit, a simple technique was used to measure single-ended the differential amplifier. To overcome possible inaccuracy of the line model, shorting bars are placed along these elements to allow easy correction and to avoid redesign.

A PLL with ultra low phase noise for millimeter wave applications

An ultra low noise phase locked loop (PLL) for millimeter wave applications is presented. The complete design includes a mixer type phase detector, a divide-by-32 frequency divider, a VCO and an off-chip active low pass filter. A method for the phase noise optimization of the PLL is described. The chip was designed using a 0.8 µm SiGe HBT technology. The frequency can be tuned from 29.9 GHz to 33.1 GHz. The output phase noise is around −112 dBc/Hz at 1 MHz offset.

Millimeter-Wave Si/SiGe HBT Frequency Divider Using Dynamic and Static Division Stages

In this paper, the authors present a fully integrated frequency divider with a divide ratio of 32, using a 0.8 mum Si/SiGe HBT technology. The divider operates at least up to 40 GHz and shows outstanding performance such as broad frequency of operation, compact die area (1130 times 460 mum2), reasonable power consumption (150 mA at 5 V supply voltage or 110 mA at 4 V with slightly degraded performance) and excellent sensitivity. The integrated circuit combines the advantages of the dynamic topology (first two stages) which includes an additional transimpedance stage and the static topology (last three stages) in order to reach these excellent results.

Millimeter-wave amplifiers using a 0.8 /spl mu/m Si/SiGe HBT technology

The authors present three amplifiers, operating at 36, 40 and 50GHz implemented in a low-cost 0.8mum Si/SiGe HBT technology which features an fT and fMAXof 80GHz. Each amplifier shows a high gain, a high isolation and a good linearity. The high performance is obtained by using appropriate design techniques such as cascode topology, DC filtering network and efficient isolation techniques

Fully integrated differential 24 GHz receiver using a 0.8 /spl mu/m SiGe HBT technology

In this paper, the authors demonstrate a fully integrated, differential 24 GHz receiver using a commercially available 0.8 /spl mu/m Si/SiGe HBT technology. The integrated components are a low-noise amplifier, voltage-controlled oscillator, buffer, down-converter quadrature mixer and 16:1 static frequency divider. The conversion gain was measured to be 33 dB for an intermediate frequency of 200 MHz with an input compression point of -27 dBm. Special emphasis has been placed on the electrical isolation of function blocks on-chip.

24 and 36 GHz SiGe HBT power amplifiers

We present two amplifiers using the SiGe HBT technology, operating at 24 GHz and 36 GHz, respectively. The first amplifier was designed to operate in the 24 GHz ISM band, especially for traffic and automotive applications. In the next step, this amplifier was improved to reach higher frequencies. Both amplifiers show a gain higher than 20 dB, a good matching as well as a high output linearity.