Research On The Key Technologies Of Silicon-Based CMOS Microwave Phased Array Integrated Circuits

The microwave frequency band provides abundant spectrum resources for modern communication and radar sensing applications.To expand the communication or detection range of the microwave wireless systems,the phased array technology with beamforming capability is widely applied.However,current phased arrays of large aperture face superior difficulties in terms of system integration and building cost.Therefore,research emerged in both the academic and industry in seek of high integration and low-cost phased array MMICs.In this dissertation,the fundamental circuit modules of microwave phased array systems are studied in detail,including frequency reconfigurable Wilkinson power divider,balun matching network,and the passive switching phase shifters.Afterward,a Ku-band monolithic silicon-based CMOS phased array chip integrated with four transceiver channels was realized.Moreover,the integration method of phased array chips and antennas has also been deeply studied.The content of this dissertation is structured as follows:1.In the first section,research on frequency reconfigurable Wilkinson power divider,which is a key technology based on transmission line phase shifter to realize frequency reconfigurable circuit is proposed.This reconfigurable Wilkinson power divider covering the frequency range of 24 to 44 GHz is implemented using a standard 65 nm CMOS process,with an outstanding performance of better than 22.4 dB isolation,lower than-15.2 dB reflection coefficient,and an insertion loss of less than 2.6 dB.Such power divider has fulfilled the application requirements of the entire millimeter-wave 5G n257?n261 and Ka frequency bands.Besides,the illustrated analysis and design methods for transmission line phase shifting are also applicable to other frequency reconfigurable designs.2.Research on Ku-band four-channel CMOS phased-array transceiver front-end is presented in the second section.The Ku-band four-channel phased-array transceiver front-end is implemented using a 0.18 um CMOS process and easily scaled up to a larger aperture to satisfy the application for satellite communications or radar sensing applications.In addition,for the balun matching network,a compensation matching network technique based on the mixed-mode S-parameters is proposed.The simulated phase unbalance of the designed balun matching network is less than 0.2°,the amplitude unbalance is less than 0.13 dB,and the reflection coefficient is less than-16.6 dB.Meanwhile,the mechanism of the phase shift accuracy deterioration of the passive switching phase shifter at-45 ? and 85 ? is studied,and a calibrated phase shifter unit is used to improve the passive phase shifter at those extreme temperatures.3.The last section focuses on the packaging form of the CMOS microwave phased array chip.To reduce the influence of the interconnection between the CMOS microwave phased array chip and the antenna,a four-channel phased array transceiver system is implemented using the packaging technology of an integrated on-chip antenna.The adopted packaging technology not only takes advantage of the high integration and low connection loss of the on-chip integrated antenna but also avoids the use of additional chip area to meet the requirement of half-wavelength spacing between on-chip antenna elements.Finally,the realized phased array system has a scan angle range of ±28° and a peak effective isotropic radiated power of 14 dBm.