An active balanced up-converter module in InP-on-BiCMOS technology

This paper presents an active up-converter realized as hetero-integrated module in InP-on-BiCMOS technology. It consists of a fundamental Voltage Controlled Oscillator (VCO) in 0.25 μm BiCMOS technology and a frequency multiplier followed by double balanced Gilbert mixer cell in 0.8 μm transferred substrate (TS) InP-HBT technology, which is integrated on top of the BiCMOS MMIC. The fundamental VCO operates at 54 GHz. The module achieves a single-sideband (SSB) power up-conversion gain of 2.5 dB and −3.5 dB at 82 GHz and 106 GHz, respectively. It exhibits > 25 GHz IF bandwidth. To the knowledge of the authors, this is the first heterointegrated module reported so far.