1W < 0.9dB IL DC-20GHz T/R switch design with 45nm SOI process

In this paper, we discuss a DC-20GHz single-pole double-throw (SPDT) transmit/receive switch (T/R switch) design in 45nm SOI process. This circuit is dedicated to fully integrated CMOS RF front end modules for X/Ku band satellite communication applications. The switch exhibits a measured insertion loss of 0.59dB, return loss of 23dB, and isolation of 17dB at 14GHz. The input 1dB compression point is 31.5dBm, and one-tone IIP3 is 63.8dBm. This state of the art performance is comparable or even better than existing commercial GaAs SPDT in this frequency range. The core area is only 90um × 100um, which is very helpful for low cost large element phase array designs.