An L-band SiGe BiCMOS core chip MMIC for transmit/receive modules

In this paper, an L-band transmitter and receiver MMIC, which is known as a core chip for phased array communication and radar applications is presented. The MMIC is fabricated in 0.18 μm SiGe-BiCMOS process, comprises an RX amplifier, a 5-bit active phase shifter, SPDT switches, and a TX amplifier. The RX amplifier realized low noise and high linearity with dual bias-feed techniques. The measurement results show, in receive mode, a gain of 25.5 dB, a noise figure of 1.9 dB, and an input P1dB of -16 dBm in L-band. The MMIC is capable of providing 32 phase states from 0° to 360°, with an RMS phase error of lower than 2.3° and an RMS gain error of lower than 0.5 dB. In transmit mode, the gain of 32 dB, and the saturated output power of 15 dBm are achieved.