A 59-GHz push-push voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO)-based on 0.18-m SiGe BiCMOS technology-for a full-band 60-GHz transceiver was developed. The VCO uses a loop-ground transmission line (LG-TML) composed of signal lines (half wavelength at fundamental frequency) and secondary lines (quarter wavelength at second harmonic frequency). The LG-TML makes it possible to output both a large signal at second harmonic frequency and an adequate signal at the fundamental frequency for driving a prescalar, while it prevents the Miller effect of the HBTs in the VCO from increasing and negative conductance from being reduced. As a result, the VCO achieves high output power of +1.5 dBm, while maintaining wide tuning range of 13.9 GHz (26% of the center oscillation frequency). Moreover, it exhibits a low phase noise of -108 dBc/Hz at a 1-MHz offset frequency and achieves a state-of-the-art figure of merit (FOM ) of -189.6 dB. Index Terms-IEEE 802.15.3c, loop-ground transmission line, millimeter-wave communication, push-push VCO, SiGe BiCMOS, VCO.
A wide-bandwidth automatic gain control (AGC) amplifier IC was developed using a self-aligned selective-epitaxial SiGe heterojunction bipolar transistor (HBT). A transimpedance load circuit was used, and its damping factor was optimized to achieve a wide bandwidth of 32.7 GHz. Capacitor peaking was introduced to the second variable-gain amplifier in order to obtain a wide gain dynamic range of 19 dB. The amplifier IC has a noise figure of 18 dB and an eye pattern at 25 Gb/s.
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