A broad-band BiCMOS transmitter front-end for 27–36GHz phased array systems

A 27-36 GHz wide-band phased array TX front-end is demonstrated in a 0.25um SiGe:C BiCMOS process. The TX front-end presents a saturation power more than 12.5dBm across 9GHz bandwidth. The front-end provides variable phase shift from 0°~360° with ~10° resolution, and the relative phase shift remains constant in the desired band. A 2-bit amplitude resolution is available for advanced beamforming algorithms. The wide-band PA can be applied in saturation mode and in linear mode due to its high linearity with an OIP3 over 21dBm.