A mixed-signal X-band SiGe multi-function control MMIC for phased array radar applications

In this paper is reported the design, fabrication and test of a mixed-signal SiGe X-band multi-function control MMIC for phased array radar applications. Said MMIC, fabricated, with the ST-Microelectronics BiCMOS7RF SiGe technology, comprises a 5-bit phase shifter, 5-bit attenuator, SPDT switches, several gain amplifiers and a digital serial to parallel converter to reduce the number of MMIC I/O control lines. The gain amplifiers are implemented using SiGe HBTs, while phase shifter, attenuator and SPDT switches are based on CMOS transistors. The measurement results show a return loss better than 15 dB and a gain of 17 dB, equal in both RX and TX state. In RX mode the obtained noise figure is lower than 10 dB, while in TX mode the output P_{1 dB} is higher than 12 dBm. The achieved RF performance, the low power consumption and associated low cost, make this SiGe control-chip an attractive solution for high performance/low cost Tx/Rx components for phased array radar applications.