79GHz BiCMOS Single-Ended and Differential Power Amplifiers

Nejdat Demirel (1) , Eric Kerherve (1) , Robert Plana (2) , Denis Pache (3)

1 IMS - Laboratoire de l'intégration, du matériau au système
2 LAAS - Laboratoire d'analyse et d'architecture des systèmes
3 ST-CROLLES - STMicroelectronics [Crolles]

This paper presents the performance of 79GHz power amplifiers (PAs) for automotive short range radar (SRR) application. A single-ended four stage common emitter circuit topology and a differential PA with integrated baluns are fabricated using 0.13µm SiGe BiCMOS process. The design and the measured results of the monolithic integrated low-voltage PAs are reported. The 79GHz differential PA, which the design is based on the single-ended PA, delivers 18dBm of maximum output power and 13.5dBm output power at 1dB compression (P1dB). The differential circuit achieves 21.5dB gain and shows 8.2% of power added efficiency (PAE) from a 1.8V supply voltage at 79 GHz. The power amplifier was fully integrated including matching elements, bias circuit and very small baluns (72µm*72µm). The chip occupies an area of 0.46mm² and 0.7mm² for the single-ended and differential configuration respectively.

Domaines: Electronique

Nejdat Demirel, Eric Kerherve, Robert Plana, Denis Pache. 79GHz BiCMOS Single-Ended and Differential Power Amplifiers. 40th IEEE European Microwave Conference, EUMC '10, Paris: France (2010), Sep 2010, France. pp.1690 - 1693. ⟨hal-00579104⟩