A 24-30 GHz Transceiver Front-End for 5G Applications with Power Amplifier with > 21-dBm P_sat and Low Noise Amplifier with < 4-dB NF equipped with Phase Inverter

Abstract

This paper presents a millimeter-wave transceiver front-end (FE) circuit including a power amplifier (PA), a low noise amplifier equipped with phase inverter (LNA-PI), and a transmission/reception switch (TRX-SW) fabricated in 0.13-μm SiGe BiCMOS. The TRX-SW is configured as the output matching network for the PA in TX mode and as the input matching network for the LNA-PI in RX mode. The PA is implemented using a three stacked transistors architecture to provide high output power. Measurements of the FE in TX mode demonstrate peak S₂₁ of 33.0 dB at 29.9 GHz, S₂₁ 3-dB bandwidth (BW_-3dB) of 14.5 GHz from 18.0 to 32.5 GHz, saturated output power above 21 dBm, and power-added efficiency of 16.9 to 20.5% from 24 to 30 GHz. The PA achieves a competitive ITRS FoM of 96.3. In RX mode, the FE demonstrate peak S₂₁ of 23.4 dB at 20.0 GHz, S₂₁ BW_-3dB of 14.6 GHz from 18.2 to 32.8 GHz, and noise figure lower than 4 dB. The PI shows 180° phase shift within 10% error.