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A 7-Bit Reverse-Saturated SiGe HBT Discrete Gain Step Attenuator.
- Source :
- IEEE Transactions on Circuits & Systems. Part II: Express Briefs; Apr2020, Vol. 67 Issue 4, p665-669, 5p
- Publication Year :
- 2020
-
Abstract
- In this brief, the analysis, design, and measured results of a fully integrated 7-bit step attenuator implemented in a 0.25- $\mu \text{m}$ Silicon–Germanium (SiGe) BiCMOS process technology, are described. The attenuator is designed based on delicately ordered and cascaded $\Pi $ /T type attenuation blocks, which are comprised of series/shunt switches employing SiGe hetero-junction bipolar transistors (HBTs) with peak $f_{T}/f_{\max }$ of 110/180 GHz. HBTs are employed as a series switch to decrease the insertion-loss (IL) of the attenuator. Moreover, to the authors’ best knowledge, this is the first study presenting the effect of employing reverse-saturated HBTs as a shunt switch for each attenuation blocks. Thanks to this advancement, the highest input-referred 1-dB compression point (IP1dB) is reported for Si-based similar studies. This method also decreases the IL of the proposed attenuator. The measurements result in the state-of-the-art performance with 28.575-dB attenuation range by 0.225-dB gain steps while maintaining 7-bit amplitude resolution across 6.6 GHz–12.8 GHz frequency band, where RMS phase error remains below 3.3° and IL is less than 12.4 dB. The measured IP1dB of the attenuator is 13.5 dBm while drawing 8 mA from 3.3-V supply. The die occupies an area of 1.37 mm $\times \,\, 0.56$ mm excluding pads. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 15497747
- Volume :
- 67
- Issue :
- 4
- Database :
- Complementary Index
- Journal :
- IEEE Transactions on Circuits & Systems. Part II: Express Briefs
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 142452484
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1109/TCSII.2019.2922418