Ka-Band Tx Integrated Circuits in 0.13 μm SiGe BiCMOS for AESA for SATCOM Applications

This paper proposes the design of an active Vector Modulator (VM) and a Variable Gain Power Amplifier (VGPA) for an active electronic scanning antenna (AESA) in Ka-band (Tx). The VM is composed of three main blocks: a balun, a second-order polyphase filter (I/Q network), and Variable Gain Amplifiers (VGA). The VGPA is a two-stage amplifier: control and power. The circuit designs are presented using 130 nm BiCMOS9MW technology from ST Microelectronics®. For the VM, simulations show good phase results around 30 GHz. Insertion losses are less than -6 dB across the entire band and regardless of phase state. Consumption is less than 115 mW. For the VGPA, simulations show saturated output power greater than 16.5 dBm, power gain greater than 20 dB with Power-Added Efficiency (PAE) greater than 20 %. Dynamic gain and 1-dB output compression point <tex xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">(OCP1dB)</tex> are greater than 12 dB and 15 dBm respectively. The circuits have an area of 2.6 <tex xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">mm²</tex> and 1.26 <tex xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">mm²</tex> respectively.