A 16-Channel 3.1–25.5-GHz Phased-Array Receive Beamformer IC With Two Simultaneous Beams and 2.0–2.4-dB NF for C/X/Ku/Ka-Band SATCOM

This article presents a 3.1–25.5-GHz phased-array receive beamformer integrated circuit (BFIC) for <tex-math notation="LaTeX">C</tex-math> -, <tex-math notation="LaTeX">X</tex-math> -, <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$Ku$</tex-math> -, and <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$Ka$</tex-math> -band satellite communication (SATCOM) in a 90-nm SiGe BiCMOS process. The chip adopts the radio frequency (RF) beamforming architecture and consists of 16 channels for dual-beam operation. The measured electronic gain of each channel is 26.6 dB with a 3.1–25.5-GHz 3-dB bandwidth, 25-dB gain control, and 5-bit phase resolution. The measured noise figure (NF) is <tex-math notation="LaTeX"><2.0</tex-math> dB at the <tex-math notation="LaTeX">C</tex-math> -, <tex-math notation="LaTeX">X</tex-math> -, and <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$Ku$</tex-math> -bands and <tex-math notation="LaTeX"><2.4</tex-math> dB at the <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$Ka$</tex-math> -band. A 16-element wideband phased array using Vivaldi antennas is designed. The array achieves <tex-math notation="LaTeX">±</tex-math> 60 <tex-math notation="LaTeX">^∘</tex-math> scanning, and the broadside gain-to-noise-temperature (G/T) is between <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$-$</tex-math> 14.6 and <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$-$</tex-math> 12.0 dB. QPSK, 8-PSK, and 16-QAM modulated signals (up to 400 MBaud) are supported with <tex-math notation="LaTeX"><3</tex-math> % error-vector magnitudes (EVMs) at all scan angles. To the authors’ knowledge, the BFIC demonstrates the widest operating bandwidth for SATCOM ground-terminal reception with a state-of-the-art NF.