Design Of SiGe BiCMOS Power Amplifier For Phased Array Radar Application

Phased Array Radar has demonstrated a great value in both military and civilian fields. It mainly contains two kinds,active and passive. Each radiator of the active one has its own dedicated T/R module. The T/R module mainly consists of LNA, VGA, Phase Shifter, SPDT, PA and Digital Control Circuit. Power amplifier cost the most power and area, it is the most critical circuit module of the T/R module.In the past, power amplifier was mainly made of III-V compound semiconductor process, such as Ga As, In P, and Ga N etc. But they are costly, poor heat dissipation and can't integrate with other circuit on a single chip. Si Ge HBT(Silicon-Germanium Heterojunction Bipolar Transistor) has the advantages of high f T, high gain and power density, good linearity and high performance price ratio. Si Ge HBT combined with standard CMOS process formed Si Ge Bi CMOS process, it has higher heat dissipation rate, low cost, and also can be integrated with other CMOS circuit on a single chip. It becomes a powerful choice for medium-power RF power amplifier in recent years.The main work and contributions of this paper are as following:1. The theory and design techniques, reasons of nonlinear distortion, such as gain compression, 3rd inter modulation of RF power amplifiers were analyzed. The design flow and key issues of power amplifier design were analyzed and as a guide of the power amplifier circuit design and simulation.2. A 4-6 GHz single stage Power Amplifier(PA) is presented based on 0.13 um Si Ge Bi CMOS process. Test results show that this PA gets the power gain more than 18.4d B, the saturation output power more than 22.7d Bm,the output 1d B compression point more than 17.1d Bm and the PAE at OP-1 more than 18.1%, the maximum PAE is more than 28.5%.3. A 6-8 GHz two stage Si Ge Bi CMOS Power Amplifier(PA) is presented. Test results show that this PA gets the power gain more than 23.8d B, the saturation output power more than 19.4d Bm,the output 1d B compression point more than 17.1d Bm and the PAE at OP-1 more than 13.4%, the maximum PAE is more than 14.5%.