A 0.25-mu m Si-Ge Fully Integrated Pulse Transmitter with On-Chip Loop Antenna Array towards Beam-Formability for Millimeter-Wave Active Imaging

作者：Nguyen Ngoc Mai Khanh^*; Sasaki Masahiro; Asada Kunihiro

来源：IEICE - Transactions on Electronics, 2011, E94C(10): 1626-1633.

DOI：10.1587/transele.E94.C.1626

• pulse transmitter
• loop antenna
• millimeter-wave
• integrated circuit
• array antenna

This paper presents a 100-120-GHz pulse transmitter chip with a 54 x 24 on-chip loop antenna array for the purpose of beam-formability in portable millimeter-wave (mm-wave) active imaging applications. We present a new idea for silicon-based mm-wave pulse beam-forming by using voltage-varied CMOS inverter chain. This 4-mm x 4-mm transmitter chip is designed and fabricated in a 2.5-V 0.25-mu m 4-metal-layer Si-Ge Bi-CMOS process. The 30-mu m x 30-mu m loop antenna located on the top-metal layer operates as an coil in an integrated mm-wave pulse generator. Each of on-chip pulse generators employing under-damped/over-damped conditions to produce mm-wave pulses includes an R-L-C circuit, a bipolar junction transistor (BJT) operated as a switch and a CMOS inverter chain circuit for shaping the rising edge of the input clock. Simulation results by ADS 2009 and HSPICE show that loop antenna' inductance and resistance at 80-120-GHz are 51 pH and 3 Omega, respectively. A simulation performance of an integrated 13 x 6 loop antenna array illustrates the variation of maximum radiation angles depending on different phase values between array's elements. By using an mm-wave power meter, a 90-140-GHz standard horn antenna and a Schottky diode detector, several measured radiation patterns of this loop antenna array chip are achieved. From the measurement result, we demonstrate the possibility of an integrated mm-wave pulse generator for the purpose of beam-forming by changing power supplies of inverter chains.

• 出版日期2011-10