A High-Efficiency E-band SiGe HBT Frequency Tripler with Broadband Performance

A high-efficiency, high harmonic rejection E-band SiGe HBT frequency tripler for high-resolution radar application

“…Frequency doubler has been widely used in RF systems due to its easy implementation, while frequency tripler has the advantage over doubler that the third harmonic frequency is far from the fundamental frequency and the nonlinear intermodulation product at that frequency is usually low [3]. Therefore, it is attractive to exploit a high output power, high harmonic suppression frequency tripler that can effectively operate over a wide frequency range at E-band for high-resolution radar application [4].…”

“…A power enhancing technique was adopted in the fully differential cascode topology tripler core to improve output power and power added efficiency (PAE). Besides, this tripler merges a three stage high pass filter function with matching network to achieve a better harmonic rejection while maintaining wide bandwidth and good conversion gain [4,5].…”

“…A fully differential structure was adopted in this design to improve the even harmonic rejection and common mode rejection. With a 2.8 V power supply (V cc1 ), the differential CE pair Q 1 of the cascode topology are 8 µm emitter length HBTs and each biased with 0.84 V (V b1 ) to maximum third harmonic current [4]. The CB pair Q 2 is 10 µm emitter length and biased with 0.87 V base emitter voltage.…”

“…Fabrication and measurement. The tripler is realized in a 0.13 µm SiGe BiCMOS technology [4]. Figure 1(f) shows die micrograph of the HHRT (1140 µm×780 µm) including RF/dc bias pads.…”

“…The dc power consumption is 65.5 mW. The tripler was measured via on wafer probing at temperature ranging from −40 • C to 125 • C. Two on-wafer test setups were used to measure the output frequency and power respectively [4]. In addition, the losses caused by input coaxial cable, probe and output waveguide have been calibrated.…”