A SiGe BiCMOS W-Band Single-Chip Frequency Extension Module for VNAs

This article reports the design and characterization of a W-band frequency extension module, implemented in a 0.13-μm SiGe BiCMOS technology, for the vector network analyzers (VNAs). The frequency extension module has a dynamic range of about 110 dB, for an IF resolution bandwidth of 10 Hz, with an output power that varies between -4.25 and -0.3 dBm over the W-band. It has an input-referred 1-dB compression point of about 1.9 dBm. The directivity of the frequency extension module is better than 10 dB along the entire W-band, and its maximum value is approximately 23 dB at around 75.5 GHz. The total chip area is about 5.9 mm2. To the best of authors' knowledge, this article is the first demonstration of a singlechip frequency extension module in a silicon-based semiconductor technology.