A 61-GHz SiGe Transceiver Frontend for Energy and Data Transmission of Passive RFID Single-Chip Tags With Integrated Antennas

Abstract

This paper presents SiGe-based transmitter and receiver chips for a radio frequency identification (RFID) frontend in the 61-GHz industrial, scientific, and medical (ISM) frequency band. The chips are fabricated in a modern 130-nm SiGe BiCMOS technology with HBTs offering an f T of 250 GHz and f max of 370 GHz. The presented transmitter consists of a fundamental voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO), a power amplifier (PA), lumped element Wilkinson power dividers, and a static divide-by-16 chain for stabilization within a phase-locked loop (PLL). Two variants of the transmitter are fabricated with supply voltages of 3.3 and 5 V, respectively. The transmitters are designed to provide an efficient signal source to supply a passive RFID tag with the maximum allowed 20-dBm effective isotropic radiated power (EIRP) for short-range devices. The 3.3-V transmitter chip achieves a peak output power of 17 dBm, PAE PA of 18.6% and dc-to-RF efficiency of 12.9% (excluding the divider). At 61 GHz, a phase noise of −102 dBc/Hz at 1 MHz offset is achieved. The power consumption for the 5-and 3.3-V transmitter chips is 710 and 482 mW, respectively. The receiver chip is implemented as two Gilbert cell mixers inphase quadrature configuration to compensate for destructive interference that may be caused by varying distance between reader and tag.

A Compact Harmonic Radar System With Active Tags at 61/122 GHz ISM Band in SiGe BiCMOS for Precise Localization

“…The fundamental output signal of the VCO is distributed by compact lumped element Wilkinson dividers to a PA for the TX signal and the frequency doubler for harmonic LO-path generation. The circuit design of the components at the fundamental frequency is based on the results presented in [13]. The frequency doubler in the LO-path is based on a bootstrapped Gilbert cell frequency doubler similar to [24] which also has a preamplification stage included.…”

“…Besides nonlinear reflectors, many publications on linear backscatterers to uniquely identifying the intended target by radio frequency identification (RFID) are presented in the literature. Passive tags are presented, for example, in the ultrahigh frequency (UHF) band in [11] to measure the fillinglevel in tanks but also in the mm-wave range at 76 GHz in [12] for automotive or in [13], where a passive RFID tag at 61 GHz with on-chip antennas was used to counter plagiarism. Even though the output power of the transponder is 17 dBm the range is only 23 mm because of the high FSPL and low on-chip antenna efficiency.…”

Millimeter-Wave and Terahertz Transceivers in SiGe BiCMOS Technologies

“…As a result, a number of groups have targeted the demonstration of 60-GHz radar components [80]. Advanced efforts range from single monostatic transceivers [81], [82] to scalable bistatic realizations [67] that contain up to eight channels per IC [65]. Fig.…”

Versatile Dual-Receiver 94-GHz FMCW Radar System With High Output Power and 26-GHz Tuning Range for High Distance Applications

“…In Fig. 7, the measured phase noise of the 94-GHz VCO is shown in comparison with the phase noise measurements of a comparable 60-GHz VCO [16] which was also realized in the B11HFC technology and a 24-GHz VCO [17] in the B7HF200 technology which is the predecessor of B11HFC. All measurements were taken at the SE divide-by-4 section output and 50-match at the VCOs' RF-outputs with an Rohde & Schwarz FSW67 and then calculated back to the VCO's output by adding 12 dB from the by-4-division.…”