Investigations On Millimeter Wave Frequency Conversion Ciruits Based On SiGe Process

As the operating frequency of communication systems rises,researches on millimetre wave transceivers increase gradually,of which frequency conversion devices are important parts of transceivers,including frequency multipliers and mixers.Frequency multipliers are mainly used in LO links to overcome the challenge of generating high frequency LO signals.Mixers are used for spectrum shifting,which is a key part of millimetre wave transceivers.Active and passive devices provided by 0.13μm SiGe HBT process are analyzed firstly,including HBT transistors,resistors,capacitors,etc.A brief overview of balun structures is also provided.A tripler with 55GHz output frequency is designed with a single balanced structure adopted,consisting of an all-differential common-source pair and a differential cascode driver amplifier to increase the conversion gain.The chip has been fabricated and tested.A saturated output power up to 12.3d Bm and a conversion gain up to 14.3d B in 52.5GHz⁶6GHz is measured,with harmonic rejections over 20d B and an IP_{1d B}point over-4d Bm.The power consumption of the tripler core is 11.2m W and of the drive amplifier is 66.6m W under a 3.3V voltage supply.Its core area is 700μm×296μm and the overall area including pads is 878μm×576μm.A down mixer operating at 300GHz is designed by the same process,connected with a differential cascode driver amplifier through a transformer based matching structure.An IF output power up to-11.88d Bm is simulated between 293GHz³08GHz,with a conversion gain up to 20.4d B and an IP_{1d B}point over-9d Bm.The power consumption of the mixer core is 19.1m W and of the drive amplifier is 208m W under a 3.3V voltage supply.Its core area is540μm×260μm and the overall area including pads is 760μm×820μm.