Design and Characterisation of Monolithic Millimetre-Wave Integrated Circuits for Phased-Array Transmitter Front-End

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School of Electrical Engineering | Doctoral thesis (article-based) | Defence date: 2017-11-30
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Date

2017

Department

Elektroniikan ja nanotekniikan laitos
Department of Electronics and Nanoengineering

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Mcode

Degree programme

Language

en

Pages

70 + app. 58

Series

Aalto University publication series DOCTORAL DISSERTATIONS, 214/2017

Abstract

This dissertation presents the research contributions of monolithic integrated circuit design and implementation, and seven scientific publications. The study presents the feasibility of using CMOS technology for design and characterisation of radio front-ends at W-band (75-110 GHz). The design of active and passive components, such as transmission lines and transistor layout, are discussed in more detail for this purpose. The designed circuit components in this work, for instance phase shifters and amplifiers, are used to realise a phased-array transmitter front-end. Design of the phase shifter and amplifier is carried out with a 1-V supply in 28nm CMOS. The phase shifter is a differential vector-sum phase shifter with two control voltages realised in the 0.552 mm2 die area. When the control voltages are changed, a 90° phase resolution is generated which is suitable for an array having four antenna elements. After a suitable phase shift is generated by the phase shifter, the amplifier is used for signal amplification which has a reasonable noise figure as a differential buffer amplifier. The die size of the amplifier is 0.36 mm2. In order to manufacture the phased-array transmitter front-end, all passives such as the DC and 50-Ω signal lines and pads, embedded resistors, waveguide transition and antenna-array are fabricated by low temperature co-fired ceramic (LTCC) technology. The size of the fabricated LTCC is 2 cm × 4.5 cm. The array consists of four antenna elements which needs in total eight phase shifters and amplifiers. In each branch of the array, the amplifier provides a 4.6-dBm transmit power for the antenna element. Finally, the active components are flip-chipped on the LTCC. The size of the fabricated transmitter front-end, including the designed PCB for measurements, is 9 cm × 6 cm. The measurements are carried out for a communication distance of 1 m using a horn antenna at the receiver side. A good agreement between the simulations and measurements is achieved for the phased-array. The design is scalable for a higher number of array elements and two-dimensional beam-steering for future investigations.

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Supervising professor

Halonen, Kari, Prof., Aalto University, Department of Electronics and Nanoengineering, Finland

Keywords

CMOS technology, millimetre-wave integrated circuits, phased arrays, W-band

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Parts

  • [Publication 1]: A. Vahdati, A. Lamminen, M. Varonen, J. Säily, M. Lahti, K. Kautio, M. Lahdes, D. Parveg, D. Karaca, and K. A. I. Halonen, "90-GHz CMOS Phased-Array Transmitter Integrated on LTCC," IEEE TAP, Special Issue on Antennas and Propagation Aspects oj 5G Communications, 2017.
    DOI: 10.1109/TAP.2017.2743009 View at publisher
  • [Publication 2]: A. Vahdati, M. Varonen, D. Parveg, D. Karaca, and K. A. I. Halonen, "Design of an 85-95-GHz Differential Amplifier in 28-nm CMOS FDSOI," Global Symposium on Millimetre Waves (GSMM) & ESA Workshop on Millimetre-Wave Technology and Applications, Espoo, Finland, June, 2016, pp. 1-4.
    DOI: 10.1109/GSMM.2016.7500302 View at publisher
  • [Publication 3]: A. Vahdati, D. Parveg, M. Varonen, M. Kärkkäinen, D. Karaca, and K. A. I. Halonen, "W-band phase shifter in 28-nm CMOS," Analog Integrated Circuits and Signal Processing, vol. 84, no. 3, pp. 399-408, June 2015.
    DOI: 10.1007/s10470-015-0596-x View at publisher
  • [Publication 4]: A. Vahdati, D. Parveg, M. Varonen, M. Kärkkäinen, D. Karaca, and K. A. I. Halonen, "A 100-GHz phase shifter in 28-nm CMOS FDSOI," in Proc. 10th European Microwave Integrated Circuits Conjerence (EuMIC), Paris, France, September 2015, pp. 112-115.
    DOI: 10.1109/EuMIC.2015.7345081 View at publisher
  • [Publication 5]: A. Vahdati, M. Varonen, M. Kärkkäinen, D. Parveg, and K. A. I. Halonen, "A 97-106-GHz differential I-Q phase shifter in 28-nm CMOS," in Proc. 32nd NORCHIP conjerence, Tampere, Finland, October 2014, pp. 1-4.
    DOI: 10.1109/NORCHIP.2014.7004724 View at publisher
  • [Publication 6]: D. Parveg, A. Vahdati, M. Varonen, D. Karaca, M. Kärkkäinen, and K. A. I. Halonen, "Modeling and Applications of Millimeter-wave Slow-wave Coplanar Coupled Lines in CMOS," in Proc. 10th European Microwave Integrated Circuits Conjerence (EuMIC), Paris, France, September 2015, pp. 207-210.
    DOI: 10.1109/EuMIC.2015.7345105 View at publisher
  • [Publication 7]: A. Vahdati and A. J. Viitanen, "Reflection and transmission fields in tilted wire medium interface," Microwave and Optical Technology Letters (Wiley InterScience), vol. 51, no. 8, pp. 1991-1994, 2009.
    DOI: 10.1002/mop.24491 View at publisher

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https://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-952-60-7699-7

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[diss] Sähkötekniikan korkeakoulu / ELEC