| dc.description.abstract | This research demonstrates two novel millimeter-wave (mm-wave) fully-integrated frequency-division duplexing (FDD) transmitting-receiving (TX-RX) front-end modules, including duplexer (DUX), power amplifier (PA), and low noise amplifier (LNA) on TowerJazz 0.18-µm SiGe BiCMOS. Additionally, two new proposed structures of BiCMOS PAs operating at mm-wave ranges are presented. These new contributions would benefit the developments of next generation wireless communications as well as other mm-wave wireless systems. First, for the proposed structures of BiCMOS PAs, we adopt both advantages of hetero-junction bipolar transistor (HBT) and metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET, NMOS) to improve PA performances such as larger maximum output power (Psat), higher gain, and better output 1-dB compression point (OP1dB). A detail investigation about cascode amplifiers of the HBT and NMOS combinations is presented. Ultimately, HBT with body-floating NMOS structure can provide medium gain with higher linear output power. The other new structure PA is three transistors stacked-amplifier, which is two stacked HBT and cascoded with a body-floating NMOS, leading to decent gain, larger Psat, and OP1dB. A SAW-less high-isolation fully-integrated 23.5–36.2-GHz FDD TX-RX front-end module, containing a DUX, PA, and differential LNA, is demonstrated on a single Si substrate to facilitate the development of system with DUX on a chip (SoC). The isolation between PA output and LNA input is better than 42 dB in 13 GHz bandwidth (BW). For the RX path, LNA has better than 19 dB gain with the minimum 13.8 dB noise figure (NF) at 28 GHz. On the TX path, PA provides about 12.9 dB gain with better than 12.5 dBm Psat in BW. TX signals leakage through Si-substrate is also considered and suppressed, using PA with deep-N-well structure and p-type/n-type grounding guard ring. This module only occupies 2.1-mm2 without dc and RF pads. In order to overcome the antenna imbalance issue of electrical balanced DUXs (EBDs) and high power consumption issue of active DUXs, a new power-efficient 28 GHz TXRX front-end module with more than 60-dB TX-RX isolation, including DUX, PA, and LNA, is designed, which combines the advantage of passive microwave circuit and active cancellation technique to achieve higher TX-RX isolation, low NF, and being power-efficient. The cancellation path consists of a variable gain amplifier (VGA) and reflection-type phase-shifter (RT-PS) to control the feedback signal amplitude and phase. A detailed analysis and design methodology are also proposed. This narrow-band TX-RX module also occupies small area with 2-mm2 without dc and RF pads. | en |
