Millimeter-wave High Voltage Power Amplifier Implementation in Silicon Germanium
Open AccessRecent allocations by the FCC of very high frequencies in the range from 30 GHz to 300 GHz have opened up the door to the next generation of wireless technologies. This frequency range, coined the "millimeter-wave band" presents an opportunity for wireless technologies to expand the ability of a myriad of services that rely on wireless technology from current radar systems to medical equipment to consumer ultra high speed wireless networks by allowing for greater bandwidth enabling higher data rates and increased resolution. To bring this technology to the forefront of mass production, innovative solutions in the design of high frequency transmitters and amplifiers are needed with careful attention paid to the economics as well as the engineering. Currently silicon is a desired medium for millimeter-wave technology, but is deficient in two key areas: 1) low breakdown voltage and 2) high losses due to on-chip impedance transformation networks required for output matching in a 50 Ohm system. These fundamental deficiencies affect the power amplifier component of the wireless transceiver more than any other. Our research objective is two fold: 1) advance the state of the art in silicon based power amplifier design and 2) enable inexpensive mass production of the next generation of wireless millimeter-wave technologies for use in commercial, military, and medical fields. We attempt to achieve THIS using a state of the art commercially available 120 nm Silicon Germanium (SiGe) semiconductor manufacturing process in novel applications to increase the power output of the silicon based power amplifier. Our architecture reliably operates and has been implemented through the course of this research at 2.4 GHz and 30 GHz. It allows for very large output voltage swings, leading to high output power with high efficiency when used in a power amplifier design. It is our hope that the reproducibility of our design can be integrated into new devices in a cost-effective manner to ensure their continued proliferation and the unlocking of the next generation millimeter-wave wireless technologies.
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