The paper presents the analysis, design and performance of PCB (Printed Circuit Board)-based cross-coupled differential VCOs using a novel LC-tank. As compared with the conventional LC-tank, a novel LC-tank is comprised of only chip inductors and thus has an advantage in providing a higher cutoff frequency. This feature attributes to the use of the parasitic elements of the chip inductors and capacitors. The cutoff frequencies were compared for both LC-tanks by calculation, simulation and measurement. Then the traditional cross-coupled differential oscillators having both LC-tanks were designed, fabricated and performed by using 0.35µm SiGe HBTs and 1005-type chip devices. The implemented oscillator using a novel LC-tank has shown a 0.12GHz higher oscillation frequency, while phase noise characteristics were almost the same. In addition, the cross-coupled differential oscillator utilizes a series RL circuit in order to suppress the concurrent oscillations. The implemented cross-coupled differential VCO employing Si varactor diodes with a capacitance ratio of 2.5 to 1 has achieved a tuning frequency of 0.92 to 1.28GHz, an output power greater than -13.5dBm, a consumed power less than 8.7mW and a phase noise at 100kHz offset in a range from -104 to -100dBc/Hz.

L-band SiGe HBT frequency-tunable differential amplifiers with dual-bandpass or dual-bandstop responses have been developed for the next generation adaptive and/or reconfigurable wireless radios. Varactor-loaded dual-band resonators comprised of series and parallel LC circuits are employed in the output circuit of differential amplifiers for realizing dual-bandpass responses as well as the series feedback circuit for dual-bandstop responses. The varactor-loaded series and parallel LC resonator can provide a wider frequency separation between dual-band frequencies than the stacked LC resonator. With the use of the varactor-loaded dual-band resonator in the design of the low-noise SiGe HBT differential amplifier with dual-bandpass responses, the lower-band frequency can be varied from 0.58 to 0.77 GHz with a fixed upper-band frequency of 1.54 GHz. Meanwhile, the upper-band frequency can be varied from 1.1 to 1.5 GHz for a fixed lower-band frequency of 0.57 GHz. The dual-band gain was 6.4 to 13.3 dB over the whole frequency band. In addition, with the use of the varactor-loaded dual-band resonator in the design of the low-noise differential amplifier with dual-bandstop responses, the lower bandstop frequency can be varied from 0.38 to 0.68 GHz with an upper bandstop frequency from 1.05 to 1.12 GHz. Meanwhile, the upper bandstop frequency can be varied from 0.69 to 1.02 GHz for a lower bandstop frequency of 0.38 GHz. The maximal dual-band rejection of gain was 14.4 dB. The varactor-loaded dual-band resonator presented in this paper is expected to greatly contribute to realizing the next generation adaptive and/or reconfigurable wireless transceivers.

An L-band 4-bit RL/RC-switched active phase shifter using differential switches is developed. It employs RL/RC circuits in the design of series feedback loops of the quadrature differential amplifier and achieves 90, 45, and 22.5of phase shift by switching on and off the RL/RC circuits alternatively. On the other hand, a 180phase shift is achieved with the use of a phase difference between the differential outputs. By cascading all four bits, an insertion gain of 16 to 23 dB, a phase error of less than 8.5, and an RMS phase error of 4.6have been achieved at 1 GHz.

This paper describes a novel high-Q active inductor circuit configuration composed of an operational transconductance amplifier (OTA) and an input RC network. Due to the phase rotation made by the input RC network, the active inductor circuit provides high-Q inductive impedance at higher frequencies. According to circuit simulation with design-kit of a 90-GHz-fT SiGe HBT technology, an inductance of more than 0.53 nH and Q of more than 80 can be obtained at quasi-millimeter-wave frequency, 24 GHz. The Q value is tunable by controlling the transconductance of the OTA. These features are also ensured by means of measurements of fabricated active inductor circuit. Since the active inductor circuit needs small chip area, which is 25% of a conventional passive inductor, the proposed active inductor contributes to implement a cost-effective high-Q notch filter for frequencies up to quasi-millimeter-wave frequencies.

A high efficiency SiGe HBT differential power amplifier with an open collector adaptive bias was successfully demonstrated. A novel linearizer consists of an open collector heterojunction bipolar transistor bias circuit and an MOS feedback diode was proposed, which achieved better power added efficiency (PAE) than that of traditional adaptive bias circuits. The size effect of linearizer was investigated and the impedance ratio (R1/R2) between the linearizer and the main amplifier was optimized by the factor of 3. The measured differential power amplifier achieved an output 1-dB compression point (P1 dB) of 18.7 dBm with PAE of 31.2%, the output second order intermodulation point (OIP2) of 59 dBm, and third-order intermodulation point (OIP3) of 28 dBm. Compared to traditional adaptive bias technique, the proposed linearizer power amplifier effectively improved the PAE. The fabricated die size including pads is less than 0.925 mm2 and suitable for highly integrated linear drive amplifier.

We present C-doped SiGe (SiGe:C) heterojunction bipolar transistor (HBT) devices that exhibit highly efficient and linear power characteristics comparable to those of GaAs HBTs under wide-band code-division multiple-access (WCDMA) modulation. Our devices have a novel resistor inserted in their base bias current pass, which is designed to short-circuits DC components of the base current and conducts only envelope frequency signals. The impurity concentration at their emitter-base junctions is reduced by the effect of C doping suppressing B diffusion, and the emitter capacitance is decreased to half that of conventional SiGe HBTs as the result. The combination of these two modifications has significantly reduced the adjacent channel power leakage ratio (ACPR), and the idle current, without degrading power-added-efficiency (PAE). An optimized device with a total emitter area of 3390 µm2 exhibited 48% PAE and 27.4-dBm output power with an ACPR of less than -40 dBc at an idle current of 20 mA under WCDMA modulation at 1.95 GHz and 3.4-V bias voltage.

We present excellent performance of a novel two-stage SiGe hetero-bipolar transistor (HBT) power amplifier (PA) in which different collector doping structures were employed for the first and second stages. A selectively ion implanted collector (SIC) structure was employed for the first stage HBT in order to obtain a high gain, while without-SIC structure was used for the second stage HBT in order to achieve a high breakdown voltage. At 1.95 GHz, the total PAE of 31% and a gain of 28 dB with an output power (Pout) of 26 dBm were obtained while the adjacent channel power ratio (ACPR) was less than -38 dBc for W-CDMA modulation signals.

A selectively grown Si1-xGex base heterojunction bipolar transistor (HBT) was fabricated, and effects of Ge and B profiles on the device performance were investigated. Since no obvious leakage current was observed, it is shown that good crystallinity of Si1-xGex was achieved by using a UHV/CVD system with high-pressure H2 pre-cleaning of the substrate. Very high current gain of 29,000 was obtained in an HBT with a uniform Ge profile by both increasing electron injection from the emitter to the base and reducing band gap energy in the base. Since the Early voltage is affected by the grading of Ge content in the base, the HBT with the graded Ge profile provides very high Early voltage. However, the breakdown voltage is degraded by increasing Ge content because of reducing bandgap energy and changing dopant profile. To increase the cutoff frequency, dopant diffusion must be suppressed, and carrier acceleration by the internal drift field with the graded Ge profile has an additional effect. By doing them, an extremely high cutoff frequency of 130 GHz was obtained in HBT with graded Ge profiles.

SiGe HBTs with doping level inversion, that is, a higher dopant concentration in the base than in the emitter, are realized based on the double-polysilicon self-aligned transistor scheme by means of selective epitaxy performed in a production CVD reactor. The effects of the Ge profile in the base on the transistor performance are explored. The fabricated HBT with a 12-27% graded Ge profile demonstrates a maximum cutoff frequency of 88 GHz, a maximum oscillation frequency of 65 GHz, and an ECL gate delay time of 13.8 ps.

This paper describes the design and performance of a high-speed 6-bit ADC using SiGe HBT for measuring-instrument applications. We show that the Gummel-Poon model suffices for SiGe HBT modeling and then we describe that the folding/interpolation architecture as well as simple, differential circuit design are suitable for ADC design with SiGe HBT. Measured results show that the nonlinearity of the ADC is within 1/2 LSB, and the effective bits are 5. 2 bits at an input frequency of 100 MHz and 4. 2 bits at 200 MHz with 768 MS/s. We also describe some design issues for folding/interpolation ADC.