Open Access96 GHz 4.7 mW low‐power frequency tripler with 0.5 V supply voltage
Author(s) -
Liang W.,
Mukherjee A.,
Sakalas P.,
Pawlak A.,
Schröter M.
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
electronics letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.375
H-Index - 146
ISSN - 1350-911X
DOI - 10.1049/el.2017.2523
Subject(s) - heterojunction bipolar transistor , electrical engineering , biasing , voltage , electronic circuit , cmos , materials science , silicon germanium , transistor , optoelectronics , power (physics) , electronic engineering , heterojunction , bipolar junction transistor , low voltage , engineering , silicon , physics , quantum mechanics
Using forward‐biased base–collector voltage ( V BC ) in high‐speed circuits is usually not attractive due to the performance degradation compared with biasing heterojunction bipolar transistors (HBTs) in the forward‐active region. However, the use of ultra‐low supply voltage in millimetre‐wave circuits provides an interesting application scenario not only for demonstrating the potential of modern silicon germanium (SiGe) HBT technologies in implementing severely power‐constrained wireless circuits on silicon but also for verifying the accuracy of compact models beyond standard characteristics typically measured by foundries. The results of a 96 GHz frequency tripler deliberately designed with a reduced supply voltage (0.5 V) in a 130 nm SiGe HBT technology are presented. With only 4.7 mW DC power consumption, this frequency tripler achieves a conversion loss of 3.8 dB, generating a 96 GHz output signal with only −10 dBm input signal at 32 GHz. The impact of transistor series resistances on the tripler performance is also analysed.