A Fully Integrated X-Band Phased-Array Transceiver in 0.13- SiGe BiCMOS Technology

This paper presents the design of an X-band phased-array transceiver core chip in 0.13-μm SiGe BiCMOS technology. The system is based on the all-RF architecture and contains switches, low-noise amplifier (LNA), power amplifier (PA), and the common leg 5-bit phase shifter with loss compensation amplifiers. A distributed structure is used in the gain amplifiers design to ease the multi-stage gain roll-off in the transmit (TX)/receive (RX) paths. A distributed LNA is utilized in the RX path to achieve broadband amplification with acceptable noise figure (NF) while a stacked PA is utilized in the TX path to get high output power. In the RX mode, the receiver demonstrates a gain of , an average NF of 3 dB, an output P-1dB of 6 dBm, a root mean square (rms) phase error less than 3.8 ° and an rms gain error less than 1.2 dB from 9 to 11 GHz; while dissipating 352-mW dc power. In the TX mode, the transmitter demonstrates a gain of , an output P-1dB of 28 dBm, an rms phase error less than 3 °, and an rms gain error less than 0.6 dB from 9 to 11 GHz; while dissipating 4.128-W dc power. The whole transceiver occupies 5.2 × 3 mm2chip area including the testing pads.