MMIC design activities at ASIAA ChauChing Chiong, PingChen Huang, YuhJing Huang, MingTang Chen ASIAA

1
MMIC design activities at ASIAAChau-Ching
Chiong, Ping-Chen Huang, Yuh-Jing Huang,
Ming-Tang Chen (ASIAA), Ho-Yeh Chang (NCUEE),
Ping-Cheng Huang, Che-Chung Kuo, Che-Chiang Kuo,
Chau-Chieh Li, Huei Wang (NTUEE), and Eric
Bryerton (NRAO)
Overview Amplifiers, mixers and oscillators are
key components in modern radio, millimeter and
submillimeter wave re-ceiving system. They are
also our focus in MMIC design activities at
ASIAA. The work is summarized in two
categories (1) Low noise amplifier (LNA), mixer
and IF amplifier (4-12 GHz) using 0.15 um InGaAs
mHEMT , and (2) Voltage-controlled oscillator
(VCO) and PLL components using 2um InGaP/GaAs HBT.

• InGaAs mHEMT

InGaP/GaAs HBT
New mHEMT technology is employed for its low cost
and long life-time, with compatible noise
performance with InP HEMT. Wideband LNA covering
30 to 45 GHz, IF amplifier covering 4 to 12 GHz,
and mixer for Q-band are fabricated using mHEMT.
We initiate a project to find an alternative
solution to commonly used Gunn/YIG oscillator in
microwave/millimeterwave local oscillator (LO)
system. InGaP/GaAs HBT process is adapted due to
its low 1/f noise. Five VCOs are designed in
double-tuned concept, in which two varactors
are employed to have wide tuning bandwidth and
good linearity in Vtune./Freq. curve.
Fig. 2. S-parameters of measured (thick line) and
simulated (thin line) results of LNA chip under
Vds1 Vds2 2 V, Vgs1 Vgs2 -0.2 V.
Fig. 1. Chip photo of the 2-stage mHEMT Q-band
LNA.
The measured results of the 2-stage LNA design
are shown in Fig. 2 and 3. From Fig. 2 it shows
fairly good gain response (S21) above 30 GHz,
while bad return loss (S11/S22) limits its
operation bandwidth. Noise figure is measured at
room temperature (Fig. 3). To evaluate LNA
performance at low temperature, LNA housing is in
fabrication (Fig. 4).
Layout of VCO B and its measurement results are
shown in Fig. 7. Fig. 7b shows good prediction on
oscillating frequency and output power from
harmonic balance simulator using Gummel-Poon
model.
Fig. 7c shows the phase noise performance,
measurement shows fluctuation within tuning
range. As a comparison, the specification of ALMA
is also shown in the figure. The table below
gives a common way to evaluate VCO performance in
term of figure-of-merit (FOM), our VCOs are
compatible to the others.
(a)
(c)
(b)
Fig. 4. 3D view of LNA housing. Only half of the
housing is shown in the figure.
Power (dBm)
Fig. 3. Noise figure from measurement and
simulation at room temperature.
Fig. 5 shows the results of Q-band mixer. The
design goal of this mixer is to operate at 30 to
45 GHz (RF signal) and 27 to 33 GHz (LO signal),
with 4-12 GHz IF bandwidth and -10 dB conversion
gain. Measured results shows lower conversion
gain by 3 dB. Isolation between RF/LO ports is
better than 20 dB. Gain and return loss of the
2-stage IF 4-12 GHz amplifier are shown in Fig.
6.
Fig. 7. (a) layout of VCO B, chip size is 2mm x
1.5mm (b) and (c) measured and simulated
results of oscillating frequency, power and phase
noise as function of tuning voltage (Vtune).
Fig. 5. Measured and simulated conversion gain of
Q-band mixer. LO input power is 15 dBm.
Fig. 6. S-parameters of measured (thick lines)
and simulated (thin lines) results of IF amp.
chip under Vds1/Ids1 1 V / 64 mA and Vds2/Ids2
2 V / 34 mA.
Reference 1 Diahanshahi, H., Saniei, N.,
Voinigescu, S. P., Maliepaard, M. C., and Salama,
C. A. T., IEEE Radio Freq. Integrated Circuits
Symposium, 2001. 2 Kobayashi K. W., Tran, L.
T., Oki, A. K., Block, T., Streit, D. C., IEEE
Microwave and Guided Wave Letters, vol. 5, no. 9,
Sept. 1995.
3 Bao, M., Li, Y., Jacobsson, H., IEEE
Microwave and Wireless Components Letters, Vol.
15, Nov. 2005, pp. 751-753. 4 Bao, M., Li, Y.,
Jacobsson, H., IEEE Journal of solid-state
circuits, Vol. 39, pp. 1352-155, Aug. 2004. 5
Le Grand de Mercey, G., Proc. Eur. Solid-State
Circuits, pp. 489-492, 2003.