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SiGe bipolar transceiver circuits operating at 60

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156
SiGe Bipolar Transceiver Circuits Operating
at 60 GHz
Brian A. Floyd, Member, IEEE, Scott K. Reynolds, Ullrich R. Pfeiffer, Thomas Zwick, Member, IEEE,
Troy Beukema, and Brian Gaucher
Abstract—A low-noise amplifier, direct-conversion quadrature
mixer, power amplifier, and voltage-controlled oscillators have
been implemented in a 0.12- m, 200-GHz T 290
-GHz MAX
SiGe bipolar technology for operation at 60 GHz. At 61.5 GHz,
the two-stage LNA achieves 4.5-dB NF, 15-dB gain, consuming
6 mA from 1.8 V. This is the first known demonstration of a silicon
LNA at V-band. The downconverter consists of a preamplifier, I/Q
double-balanced mixers, a frequency tripler, and a quadrature
generator, and is again the first known demonstration of silicon
active mixers at V-band. At 60 GHz, the downconverter gain is
18.6 dB and the NF is 13.3 dB, and the circuit consumes 55 mA
from 2.7 V, while the output buffers consume an additional 52 mA.
The balanced class-AB PA provides 10.8-dB gain, 11.2-dBm + in [1], where a 1.25-Gb/s 60-GHz directional link over 10
1-dB compression point, 4.3% maximum PAE, and 16-dBm satu-
rated output power. Finally, fully differential Colpitts VCOs have
been implemented at 22 and 67 GHz. The 67-GHz VCO has a
phase noise better than 98 dBc/Hz at 1-MHz offset, and provides
a 3.1% tuning range for 8-mA current consumption from a 3-V
supply.
Index Terms—Direct-conversion receiver, low-noise amplifier
(LNA), millimeter-wave bipolar integrated circuits, mixer, power
amplifier, SiGe, V-band, voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO),
60 GHz.
I. INTRODUCTION
M ILLIMETER-WAVE (MMW) integrated circuits are
traditionally implemented using compound semicon-
ductors such as gallium arsenide or indium phosphide [1]–[9].
Silicon-germanium (SiGe) technology may well begin to
intrude on this territory, though, since the transition and max-
imum oscillation frequencies of the most advanced
SiGe bipolar transistors now exceed 200 GHz [10]–[14]. In
the literature, one can now find examples of SiGe voltage-con-
trolled oscillators (VCOs) operating between 60 and 100 GHz
[15]–[20], SiGe low-noise amplifiers (LNAs), and mixers for
24 GHz [21]–[23] and 40 GHz [24], and a SiGe power amplifier
for 77 GHz [20]. As ever, silicon holds the promise of high
levels of integration, which should reduce cost and power
dissipations. This may, in turn, enable new MMW applications
and market opportunities.
One promising millimeter-wave application is wireless
communications in the 60-GHz industrial, scientific, medical
(ISM) band. The 60-GHz ISM band features a large available
bandwidth, with at least a 3-GHz overlap (59–62 GHz) for
Manuscript received April 9, 2004; revised May 28, 2004. This work was
supported in part by NASA.
The authors are with the IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center, Yorktown
Heights, NY 10598 USA (e-mail: brianfl@us.ibm.com).
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/JSSC.2004.837250
0018-9200/$20.00 © 2005 IEEE
IEEE JOURNAL OF SOLID-STATE CIRCUITS, VOL. 40, NO. 1, JANUARY 2005
Europe, Japan, and the U.S. This enables high data-rate com-
munications for wireless personal-area network (PAN) [25] or
point-to-point applications [1], with possible data rates of at
least 150 to 1000 Mb/s. Note that although this band undergoes
attenuation due to oxygen absorption of 10–15 dB/km [25], this
particular absorption is insignificant for short-range links. The
long-range limitation imposed by path loss and wall attenuation
[26] can instead be beneficial, since it improves frequency reuse
and minimizes interference with other systems. An example
of the performance already achieved at 60 GHz can be found
meters was achieved with simple ASK modulation. Antennas
with 20–27 dBi gain were used with a transceiver assembly
composed of five GaAs chips and two filters placed together in
multi-chip modules.
This paper describes key front-end 60-GHz SiGe trans-
ceiver circuits [27] designed and implemented individually
as a first step toward realizing a fully integrated wireless
PAN transceiver. The circuit blocks include a 60-GHz LNA;
a 60-GHz direct downconverter, consisting of a preampli-
fier, I/Q double-balanced mixers, a frequency tripler, and a
quadrature generator; a 60-GHz power amplifier (PA); and 60-
and 20-GHz VCOs. The circuits have been implemented in a
0.12- m SiGe bipolar technology (SiGe8T) [10]. The tech-
nology includes NPN bipolar transistors with
of 240–290 GHz, V, and
of 200 GHz,
V.
Also metal–insulator–metal (MIM) capacitors, metal-film
resistors, and four levels of metal are provided. Substrate
resistivity is 11–16 -cm. This technology is the predecessor
of a BiCMOS technology (SiGe8HP) which has the same
features as above plus 0.12- m MOS transistors and associated
front-end-of-the-line passive components.
II. MMW DESIGN TECHNIQUES AND MEASUREMENT SETUPS
A. Transmission Lines
On-chip microstrip transmission lines (t-lines) are used for
a variety of purposes in our circuits, including inductive and
capacitive stubs, RF chokes, single-stub tuners for matching,
and branch-line couplers. The impedance looking into a loss-
less t-line of length and terminated with impedance is as
follows [28]:
(1)
where and are the characteristic impedance and propa-
gation constants of the line [28]. From (1), it can easily be
shown that short-circuited stubs are inductive for lengths less
FLOYD et al.: SiGe BIPOLAR TRANSCEIVER CIRCUITS OPERATING AT 60 GHz
than , a high impedance or RF choke for a length equal to
, and capacitive for lengths between and . Like-
wise, open-circuited stubs are capacitive for lengths less than
and inductive for lengths between and . Since
our t-lines are implemented solely in the back-end-of-the-line,
silicon dioxide rather than the silicon substrate appears in the
t-line “stack-up.” Accordingly, is 600 m at 60 GHz;
thus, RF chokes can easily be integrated, as can the stubs.
Matching networks are implemented in a number of our cir-
cuits using single-stub shunt tuning [28]. This network consists
of a series t-line followed by a stub connected in parallel, and
can be found in the LNA and PA schematics. An advantage
of the single-stub tuner is that it does not require prohibitively
small series capacitors (e.g., 10s of fF), since the network is
realized solely with t-lines. Operation of the tuner is best de-
scribed through an example of matching a given admittance,
to 50 . The series line first transforms to , LNA, mixer, and active frequency quadrupler, and has 5-dB
i.e., rotating along a constant VSWR circle on the Smith chart.
The shunt stub then generates an admittance of which adds
directly to i.e., moving along the 0.02 conductance
circle to the center of the Smith chart, resulting in a matched
condition.
Models for the microstrip transmission lines were included
in the design kit [29]. We further verified these models up to
110 GHz using electromagnetic (EM) simulations and subse-
quent measurements. Note that bends and junctions were ig-
nored in our simulations, since earlier measurements showed
small discontinuities from these structures [29]. In most places,
the microstrip was implemented using top-level metal (AM)
with either metal-1 (M1) or metal-2 ground planes. The AM
layer is much thicker than the 0.34- m skin depth at 60 GHz.
Side ground shields were used in a number of places to min-
imize coupling to adjacent structures. This resulted in a max-
imum characteristic impedance of 65 for the minimum line
width of 4 m. Finally, the quality factor of a short-cir-
cuited stub can be shown to be [28], which equals at
60 GHz for the AM-over-M1 microstrip ( mm and
Np/mm, where dB).
B. Simulation Methodology
The circuits were designed using a standard Cadence-based
methodology, with SpectreRF as the simulator for the LNA,
VCO, and mixer, and ADS as the simulator for the PA. In ad-
dition, EM simulations (method-of-moments using IE3D from
Zeland Software) were used to simulate more complicated pas-
sive structures such as coplanar waveguide tapers or 90 hybrids
(e.g., a branch-line coupler), as well as to verify the t-line model
and to estimate via inductance.
At MMW frequencies, the difference between a device and a
parasitic can be small; therefore, accurate parasitic extraction is
crucial. For these designs, most of the circuit was covered with
a ground plane, allowing many interconnects to be accounted
for using the design-kit’s t-line models. Parasitic capacitance
was then extracted on local (i.e., nondistributed) nodes. Parasitic
via inductance was included wherever practical. An initial value
of 7 pH was included for the AM-to-M1 via stack; however,
subsequent measurements show that the via inductance is closer
to pH.
157
C. Measurement Setups
All measurements were made on-chip through wafer-
probing. Standard measurement setups were employed for
network analysis, spectrum analysis, and power measure-
ments using a 65- or 110-GHz vector network analyzer, a
40-GHz spectrum analyzer with external WR-15 harmonic
mixer (50–75 GHz), and a power meter with a 1.85-mm,
65-GHz power sensor. Custom measurement setups were
constructed to measure noise figure (NF) and intercept points,
and to implement V-band baluns. The NF setup consists of
a WR-15 noise source with isolator, the device-under-test
with probes/cables/adaptors, an external 59–64 GHz down-
converter, an LO signal generator for the downconverter, and
the noise-figure measurement system. Mixer double-sideband
NF measurements were obviously made without the external
downconverter. The external downconverter consists of an
NF, 20-dB gain, and -dB image rejection. To generate
two tones for an IM3 or IM2 measurement, a 65-GHz signal
generator was used to produce one tone, while the other tone
was produced using a 20-GHz generator and a frequency
quadrupler. The tones were combined with a WR-15 directional
coupler, and then adjusted with an attenuator. Finally, 60-GHz
baluns were built using magic-Ts [28], WR-15 variable phase
shifters, and WR-15 to 1.85-mm adaptors. A simple routine
was developed to calibrate the baluns such that 180 phase shift
was obtained at the probe tips.
III. MILLIMETER-WAVE CIRCUITS
A. 60-GHz System Overview and Proof of Concept
The planned 60-GHz transceiver architecture consists of a
direct-conversion receiver (RX) and a variable-IF heterodyne
transmitter (TX). Fig. 1 shows a simplified block diagram of the
components in the transceiver which have currently been im-
plemented. Direct conversion was selected for the RX to avoid
the need for integrating an image-reject filter, though a super-
heterodyne RX is also being investigated [30]. The large signal
bandwidth envisioned for high rate 60-GHz data transmissions
enables a highpass filter to be used to filter away any LO-RF
leakage effects in the direct-conversion RX. Although this
dc-block filter can affect the switching time between TX, RX,
and standby operating modes in the transceiver, the cutoff fre-
quency can be relatively high with wideband modulation which
minimizes the duration of the settling transient. For the TX,
direct-conversion seems ill-advised due to carrier feedthrough
in the mixer at 60 GHz, which most likely would need to be
addressed using a nulling approach to maintain desired carrier
suppression. To avoid the need for an LO-feedthrough compen-
sation based upconversion design, a two-stage superheterodyne
transmitter design is used. A variable-IF concept was chosen to
allow the use of a single TX-VCO operating at two-sevenths
the RF frequency. This results in an IF of RF/7. The two LO
frequencies for the TX are then generated by tripling or halving
the TX-VCO.
To investigate the feasibility of 60-GHz links, “breadboard”
versions of a superheterodyne TX and superheterodyne RX
were constructed using commercially available components
158
Fig. 1. Block diagram of four 60-GHz transceiver components—LNA, direct downconverter, PA, and 20-GHz VCO. Dashed boxes show boundaries of each chip.
Fig. 2. Simplified schematic of 60-GHz low-noise amplifier.
[31]. The demonstrators have about 8-dB NF and 10-dBm
output power at the RX and TX antennas, respectively. Using
direct-sequence spread-spectrum based QPSK modulation,
a 200-Mb/s link was demonstrated over two meters using
omni-directional antennas even after totally blocking the
line-of-sight. In [31], a 900-Mb/s link was demonstrated with
the same breadboard system using 20-dBi horn antennas.
B. Low-Noise Amplifier
A two-stage single-ended LNA was implemented as shown
in Fig. 2. The first stage common-base amplifier was chosen for
its simple input matching, its higher gain compared to an induc-
tively degenerated common-emitter amplifier (due to the lack of
degeneration), and its high reverse isolation which decouples the
input and inter-stage matching networks. The second stage con-
sists of a common-emitter cascode amplifier with emitter degen-
eration. Each stage provides dB of gain when biased at 3 mA
and V. Single-stub tuners are used for the input,
IEEE JOURNAL OF SOLID-STATE CIRCUITS, VOL. 40, NO. 1, JANUARY 2005
inter-stage, and output matching networks, with stub lengths of
m and series t-line lengths of m
for the output and inter-stage networks. MIM ac coupling capac-
itors operating beyond self-resonance are used between
the two stages and at the output. At 60 GHz, the silicon sub-
strate exhibits low impedance; thus, care was taken in circuit
design and layout to ensure adequate reverse isolation and sta-
bility. Metal-1 ground shields are used throughout the amplifier,
and substrate ties are included wherever possible. Also, metal-2
planes are used together with many MIM bypass capaci-
tors to realize a low-impedance supply. A die photograph of the
LNA is shown in Fig. 3. The die size is 0.9 0.6 mm . Dia-
mond-shaped pads are used at the input and output to reduce
the parasitic capacitance of the pad.
The measured S-parameters for the LNA are shown in Fig. 4,
together with the simulated results. The LNA is uncondition-
ally stable over 30–110 GHz. At 61.5 GHz, the gain is 14.7 dB
and the reverse isolation is 40 dB, when biased at 6 mA from
FLOYD et al.: SiGe BIPOLAR TRANSCEIVER CIRCUITS OPERATING AT 60 GHz
Fig. 3. Die photograph of 60-GHz low-noise amplifier. Die size is 0.9
Fig. 4. Measured and simulated S-parameters of the LNA for V = 1:8V, I
a 1.8-V supply. The input return loss is 6 dB, while the output
return loss is 17 dB. Model-to-hardware correlation is excellent
for , and . The miss in , though, was unexpected,
particularly given that the output match was right on target. An
alternate version of the LNA which had 50- coplanar wave-
guide (CPW) tapers at the input and output [27] showed
and better than 12 dB, as expected. These CPW tapers
absorb pad parasitics, providing a 50- impedance directly at
the microstrip ports of the LNA. Since the CPW-LNA input
match was on target, we know that the input matching network
and transistor have been correctly modeled. This then leaves
the bondpad as the source of mismatch. Simulations reveal that
when the bondpad capacitance is significantly reduced, simu-
lated and measured agree very well, while the other three
159
2 0.6 mm .
= 6 mA.
S-parameters still agree. This is shown in Fig. 4 by the curve
labeled “sim. w/o pad” in the plot. Work is ongoing to char-
acterize the bondpad using on-chip TRL (Thru-Reflect-Line)
calibration structures.
Fig. 5 shows the measured and simulated NF of the LNA (with
pads) at 6 mA and 1.8 V. No on-chip loss has been de-embedded
from this result. Note that a better-calibrated WR-15 noise
source over that used in [27] resulted in less ripple across
the band, but slightly higher NF values. The measured NF is
4.5 dB at 61.5 GHz, while the simulated NF is 4.6 dB. The
taper-LNA also has a NF of 4.5 dB when the insertion loss of
the tapers is de-embedded. The simulated minimum NF of the
LNA is 4.2 dB, while the of a single transistor is 3.1 dB.
From simulation, the input common-base device contributes
160 IEEE JOURNAL OF SOLID-STATE CIRCUITS, VOL. 40, NO. 1, JANUARY 2005

Fig. 5. Measured and simulated noise figure (NF) of the LNA for V = 1:8 Fig. 6. Measured gain, NF, and current of the taper-LNA versus temperature.
V, I = 6 mA.

80% of the added noise (split nearly equally between collector

shot noise and thermal noise from base resistance), while the
second-stage cascode contributes 10%. The remaining 10%
comes from other assorted sources.
Biasing of the two stages in the LNA is independent and
adjustable. By changing the second-stage current, adjustable
gain is obtained while NF remains relatively constant. Specif-
ically, with the first-stage current held constant at 3 mA and
the second-stage current adjusted between 0.5 and 5 mA, mea-
surements show that the gain varies by 10 dB while the NF re-
mains below 5.5 dB and remains below 9 dB. The gain
and NF of the LNA were measured across multiple dies and
over temperature. Die-to-die gain and NF variations of dB
and dB, respectively, were observed for 23 LNA sam-
ples. Fig. 6 shows the measured gain, NF, and current of the
taper-LNA over a 5 C–95 C temperature range. With a con-
stant voltage applied to the current mirror, the resultant bias
currents increase faster than proportional-to-absolute-tempera-
ture (PTAT). The measured gain varies a total 1.5 dB while NF
varies 1 dB. Finally, Fig. 7 shows the measured 1-dB compres-
sion point and IIP3 (at 100-MHz tone spacing) of the
LNA, revealing a 20-dBm and 8.5-dBm IIP3 for
both LNA versions when biased at 6 mA and 1.8 V. Simulations
predict a 22-dBm iCP and 12-dBm IIP3.
C. Downconverter
The architecture of the direct-conversion downconverter is
shown in Fig. 1. Direct conversion is often used at microwave
frequencies because it facilitates high integration, eliminating
image-reject and IF filters [32]. However, one of the issues in a
direct-conversion receiver is leakage of the local oscillator (LO)
signal into the RF signal path, which results in dc offsets at the
mixer output. LO leakage becomes a greater issue at 60 GHz
because of coupling through the silicon substrate. In the present
design, coupling was controlled by covering most of the sub-
strate with a ground plane on the first metal level (M1), placing
substrate contacts every 5 m.
Referring to Fig. 1, LNA2 has 12 dB of gain and serves as
an active balun, providing a differential RF signal to the two
Fig. 7. Two-tone IP3 measurement of the LNA.
double-balanced Gilbert-cell mixers, which have 4 dB of gain.
The mixers are driven with quadrature LO signals from a dif-
ferential branch-line directional coupler. A pilot signal comes
on-chip at a third of the desired LO frequency, and a frequency
tripler generates the final LO signal to drive the branch-line cou-
pler. This architecture minimizes LO-RF coupling through the
probes and pads, and the inclusion of the frequency tripler will
ultimately allow the frequency synthesizer to run at one-third of
the LO frequency.
LNA2 consists of a cascoded differential pair with inductive
load and degeneration, as shown in Fig. 8. The four inductors are
realized with ac short-circuited stubs, realizing an effective load
inductance of 80 pH and degeneration of 60 pH. Inductive de-
generation creates a 50- real part to the input impedance, and
the input match is completed by series inductor . is made
from a straight segment of top-metal (AM) over the substrate,
and losses are reduced by cross-hatching the substrate under
with oxide-filled trenches. LNA2 draws 8 mA from 2.7 V.
The mixers are conventional resistively degenerated double-
balanced Gilbert cells, as shown in Fig. 9. Each mixer and asso-
ciated LO buffer together draw 12 mA. Double emitter followers
are used to provide a low-impedance LO signal to the mixer
FLOYD et al.: SiGe BIPOLAR TRANSCEIVER CIRCUITS OPERATING AT 60 GHz
Fig. 9. Simplified schematic of 60-GHz double-balanced Gilbert-cell.
Fig. 8. Simplified schematic of LNA2 used in downconverter.
switches and to isolate the load capacitance of the switches from
the branch-line coupler. The mixer load resistors are 300 , so
the mixers are followed by unity-gain buffers to provide 100-
differential baseband signals to drive off-chip. The baseband
3-dB bandwidth is 1.5 GHz. The buffers, which draw 26 mA
each, are for test only, since an analog baseband is planned to
be integrated with the downconverter.
The frequency tripler block in Fig. 10 consists of two stages:
the actual tripler, and an LO amplifier following the tripler and
preceding the branch-line coupler. A 0-dBm, 20-GHz differen-
tial LO pilot signal is applied to the tripler (a cascoded differen-
tial amplifier with a tuned load), which produces third-harmonic
distortion. The LO amplifier has high input-impedance emitter
followers so that isolated, high-Q (5–10) tuned loads are pro-
duced at the collectors of . This provides gain for the third
harmonic around 60 GHz while attenuating the 20-GHz funda-
mental. The LO amplifier also has a tuned load to further am-
plify the third harmonic and reject the fundamental; it supplies
2 dBm (simulated) with the fundamental dB down. Com-
ponents - and - match the input impedance of the
161
tripler to 100- differential at 20 GHz. The tripler alone draws
4 mA and LO amplifier 16 mA.
Fig. 11 is a die photograph of the direct downconverter, which
has a die size of 1.9 1.6 mm . The branch-line coupler, folded
into the shape of a peanut to reduce its size, is located in the
center. The measured gain and NF of the downconverter are
shown in Fig. 12. All measurements of conversion gain, NF,
, and linearity refer to the unbalanced 50- input of LNA2.
Measured cable and probe losses in the test setup have been
de-embedded from the measurements, but no on-chip losses
(such as those due to the pads) have been de-embedded. Data
was taken from a wafer on which transistors had a peak
of 290 GHz, whereas simulations were done with models that
correspond to an of 240 GHz. Therefore, measured per-
formance is sometimes better than simulated performance. At
60 GHz, gain is 18.6 dB and NF is 13.3 dB, while simulated
gain is 17.1 dB and NF is 14.9 dB. Some samples, such as chip
F6 in Fig. 12, show a dip in conversion gain at 64 GHz, which
we believe is due to interaction between the LO amplifier and
branch-line coupler. Measured is 17 dBm, with a cor-
responding IIP3 of 7 dBm and IIP2 in the range of 9 to 20
dBm, depending on the sample. Average IIP2 for 4 samples
was 13 dBm. IIP3 and IIP2 were measured with a 19-GHz
LO-pilot signal applied to the frequency tripler and RF input
tones at 57.1 and 57.12 GHz. is 12 dB or better from 57
to 65 GHz.
Fig. 13 shows LO leakage measured at LNA2’s input with a
spectrum analyzer; it varies little from chip-to-chip. The leakage
generally rises with frequency and reaches 50 dBm at 60 GHz,
implying approximately 50 dB of isolation. Mixer offset volt-
ages are another measure of LO-RF isolation. Measured I and
Q offsets on eight chips have an average offset-voltage magni-
tude of 56 mV (49 mV for I-channel, 64 mV for Q-channel), in-
cluding 2 chips with offsets mV. The remaining six chips
had an average offset of 21 mV. These offsets are 100 times
higher than we measured on an earlier 2.1-GHz design [32],
but still indicate that direct conversion is practical for a 60-GHz
WPAN, given 650-mV mixer output swing and ac coupling.
162 IEEE JOURNAL OF SOLID-STATE CIRCUITS, VOL. 40, NO. 1, JANUARY 2005

Fig. 10. Simplified schematic of frequency tripler block.

Fig. 11. Die photo of the direct downconverter. Die size is 1.9 2 1.65 mm . Fig. 12. Measured conversion gain and NF for the direct downconverter.

AC coupling at the mixer outputs can prevent the offsets from

unbalancing subsequent stages and will have little impact on
a wideband WPAN baseband signal. The offsets do consume
some of the mixers’ dynamic range and decrease IIP2, but lin-
earity requirements for a 60-GHz WPAN are minimal, due to a
lack of adjacent-channel interference.
Fig. 14 shows the variation in gain and NF over tempera-
ture with bias currents held PTAT by adjusting an off-chip bias
supply. The gain is held fairly constant up to 60 C, but then
falls off rapidly. Simulations reveal that the LO amplifier which
drives the branch-line coupler has reduced output above 60 C,
and the mixer conversion gain drops with the reduced LO drive.
Fig. 14 also shows measured NF rising from 12.5 to 16.5 dB as
temperature increases from 5 to 80 C.
Figs. 15 and 16 reveal the performance of the branch-line cou- Fig. 13. Measured local oscillator leakage to LNA2 RF input versus frequency.
pler. Ideally, the I and Q channels would have the same gain and
be exactly 90 out of phase. But the outputs of the branch-line amplitude from 54 to 62 GHz, and the simulations match the
coupler vary in amplitude and phase over the frequency range, measurements quite closely. Fig. 16 shows that the simulated
and thus the I and Q channel mixer outputs also vary. Fig. 15 phase difference between I and Q channels is within of
shows that the coupler produces LO outputs of roughly equal 90 from 44 to 66 GHz, but the measured results show a phase
FLOYD et al.: SiGe BIPOLAR TRANSCEIVER CIRCUITS OPERATING AT 60 GHz 163

Fig. 14. Measured and simulation conversion gain and NF of downconverter Fig. 15. Measured I-channel to Q-channel gain balance versus frequency.
versus temperature with PTAT bias.

difference of 87 to 105 from 57 to 64 GHz. These results in-

dicate that our simulation model for the coupler is not as accu-
rate as we would like. However, our system-level simulations
indicate that even without improvement, the measured quadra-
ture accuracy is still adequate for a 60-GHz WPAN, since it has
a small impact on the bit-error rate of the demodulated signal.
Smulders [25] discusses some of the modulation schemes that
might be used in a 60-GHz WPAN.

D. Power Amplifier
The PA is a two-stage class-AB balanced amplifier, designed
to directly feed a differential antenna, eliminating any need
for an on-chip balun. The balanced amplifier is implemented
with two unbalanced amplifiers in parallel. Each unbalanced
amplifier, shown in Fig. 17, consists of two common-emitter
amplifiers, with input, inter-stage, and output matching net-
works. Single open-circuited stub tuning networks are used at
the input and output, while the inter-stage match uses a MIM
capacitor instead of a stub. Quarter-wavelength RF chokes
supply to each stage. Each of the four power transistors
has a separate temperature-compensated bias circuit [33], which
is located nearby for good thermal matching. Two major prob-
lems associated with the design of on-chip power amplifiers in
an advanced SiGe bipolar technology are the low breakdown
voltages and the high loss of the on-chip impedance transfor-
mation. In order to operate the transistor at higher voltages,
each bias circuit provides to the power transistor’s
base terminal. Thus, the NPN is limited by operation
rather than , where is slightly above 4 V for
equal to 300 . Fig. 18 shows a die photograph of the
PA, which has a size of 2.1 0.8 mm . Clearly visible left
and right are the two identical unbalanced amplifiers.
The PA was biased at 150 mA from a 2.5-V supply. Fig. 19
shows the measured transducer power gain and output power
versus input power for the balanced amplifier. At 61.5 GHz,
the gain and are 10.8 dB and 11.2 dBm, respectively.
The saturated output power level is 16.2 dBm—measured for
an unbalanced amplifier to which 3 dB is added. The max-
imum power-added efficiency (PAE) is 4.3%. Fig. 20 shows
Fig. 16. Measured I-channel to Q-channel phase difference versus frequency.
the measured gain and output power versus tempera-
ture, with constant-current biasing. Across 5 C–135 C, the gain
and each drop around 4 dB, yet the amplifier still delivers
9-dBm output power at 100 C. Input and output return losses
at 61.5 GHz are 6.2 and 8.9 dB, respectively, with respect to a
100- differential impedance.
E. Voltage-Controlled Oscillators
VCOs have been implemented at both 20 GHz, for use
with the frequency tripler, and at 60 GHz, for use as a fun-
damental-frequency oscillator. A fully differential Colpitts
topology is used at both frequencies. Fig. 21 shows a schematic
of the 60-GHz VCO. The hallmark capacitive divider of the
Colpitts architecture is formed by the base-to-emitter capaci-
tance of and the coupling capacitor between both sides
of the VCO. Microstrip transmission lines are used to form a
resonant circuit, connecting the bases to a current mirror and
realizing an inductance of 40 pH. Frequency tuning is provided
by junction varactors located in the base. No explicit output
buffers are included—the output is obtained directly from the
collector, which has a microstrip load. The 20-GHz VCO is
identical in architecture except that a slab inductor is used in
place of the base microstrip, a spiral inductor is used in place
164
Fig. 17. Simplified schematic of unbalanced amplifier used for power amplifier.
Fig. 18. Die photograph of the PA. Die size is 2.1 2 0.8 mm .
Fig. 19. Measured transducer power gain and output power at 61.5 GHz versus
input power for the balanced PA.
of the collector microstrip, and a MIM capacitor is added
between the base and emitter. Note that an output buffer would
be required to drive an off-chip load, and the buffer would
likely degrade the phase noise [17]. The buffer is required
since unmatched external loads cause the two halves of the
VCO to oscillate at slightly different frequencies, resulting in a
discontinuous and hysteretic tuning response.
The 60-GHz VCO consumes 8 mA from 3 V. The 60-GHz
VCO was designed to operate between 60 and 63 GHz, using
a parasitic via inductance value of 7 pH. Measurements show
IEEE JOURNAL OF SOLID-STATE CIRCUITS, VOL. 40, NO. 1, JANUARY 2005
Fig. 20. Measured gain and output power (P ) of the PA versus
temperature.
the tuning range to instead be 65.8 to 67.9 GHz (3.1%), for
from 0 to 3 V. This is consistent with a via inductance
value of 4 pH, which gives a 64.3 to 67.7 GHz simulated tuning
range. The differential output power, measured with a power
meter, is 8 dBm across the band. The measured phase noise
at the tuning range edges is 98 dBc/Hz at 1-MHz offset for
50- loads. This improves to 104 to 102 dBc/Hz (shown in
Fig. 22) in the middle of the tuning range. The corresponding
figure of merit for the VCO [34] is between 181 and 187 dB.
FLOYD et al.: SiGe BIPOLAR TRANSCEIVER CIRCUITS OPERATING AT 60 GHz
Fig. 21. Simplified schematic of the 60-GHz VCO.
Fig. 22. Output spectrum of 60-GHz VCO, showing phase noise at 1-MHz
offset.
The 20-GHz VCO can be tuned from 21.2 to 22.4 GHz
(4.5%), and the differential output power is 5.5 dBm. Power
consumption is 9 mA from 3 V. Phase noise at 1-MHz offset is
between 109 and 116 dBc/Hz. Note that this measurement
helps to verify the 67-GHz phase noise measurements, since
adjusting for frequency, we should see at least a or
9.5-dB improvement. More than this improvement is seen
since varactor Q should be three times larger at 22 GHz than at
67 GHz.
IV. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS
This paper has described key RF front-end components
in silicon for a 60-GHz transceiver, including an LNA, a di-
rect-downconverter, a PA, and VCOs. The performance of these
circuits is summarized in Table I. Excellent model-to-hardware
165
correlation has been achieved for each circuit. At 61.5 GHz, the
LNA achieves 4.5-dB NF, 14.7-dB gain, and 10.8-mW power
dissipation, and is the first known demonstration of a silicon
LNA at V-band. In comparison, III-V LNAs have typically
achieved NFs in the 2 to 4 dB range, gains greater than or equal
to 20 dB, and power dissipations between 20 and 160 mW
[1]–[5]. Our silicon V-band LNA achieves similar NF to GaAs
at lower power consumption. The III-V LNAs, though, do
achieve higher compression points than this SiGe LNA.
At 61.5 GHz, the downconverter achieves 16-dB gain,
14.8-dB NF, and 150-mW power dissipation. Once again, this
is the first known demonstration of active mixers in silicon
at V-band. In comparison, III-V mixers are often passive or
diode-based [35], requiring LO-drive levels of 10 to 20 dBm
and thereby consuming a large amount of power in the LO
amplifiers (e.g., 1 W in [3]). Thus, the silicon downconverter
described here represents a very low power consumption.
Also, the downconverter block contains 80 transistors and 43
inductors or transmission lines, which is a very high level of
integration at this frequency.
The PA provides a 10.8-dB gain, a 11.2-dBm 1-dB com-
pression point, and a maximum PAE of 4.3%. The saturated
output power is 16 dBm. This is the second known demon-
stration of a silicon PA at these frequencies, where Li [21]
has demonstrated a 14-dBm silicon amplifier at 77 GHz with
% efficiency. In comparison, III-V PAs for V-band deliver
23–30 dBm of power with 8–15 dB of gain and 20%–40% of
power-added efficiency [6]–[9]. Finally, 60- and 20-GHz VCOs
have been demonstrated with very low phase noise, albeit with
narrow tuning ranges. The 60-GHz VCO achieves an excellent
phase noise at 1-MHz offset between 98 and 104 dBc/Hz,
which is comparable to the performance achieved in [17].
Based on these results, a fully integrated transceiver with
less than 6-dB NF and greater than 11-dBm output power
should be possible. Specifically, cascading the LNA and down-
converter mathematically results in a receiver front-end with a
5.8-dB NF, 31-dB gain, 22-dBm IIP3, and 32-dBm .
The utility of such hardware has already been demonstrated in
166
TABLE I
SUMMARY OF MEASURED PERFORMANCE OF LNA, DOWNCONVERTER, PA, AND VCO
Section III-A and in [31], where discrete III-V based 60-GHz
radios with 8-dB NF and 10-dBm output power (both an-
tenna-referred) were used to implement a 200-Mb/s omnidi-
rectional link and a 900-Mb/s directional link in our lab. This
hardware, then, is the first step toward the implementation
of a fully integrated 60-GHz transceiver in SiGe technology.
Clearly, it is in the integration level where silicon can truly
stand out over III-V implementations. SiGe’s high level of in-
tegration and potentially low power consumption of the MMW
downconverter/upconverter could open the door to new MMW
applications and market opportunities, including high data-rate
wireless personal-area networks.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors thank IBM’s SiGe Technology group for
chip fabrication. Additionally, the authors thank D. Beisser,
D. Goren, D. Friedman, M. Soyuer, and M. Oprysko of IBM
Research, and Y. Tretiakov, and G. Freeman of IBM Micro-
electronics for their contributions.
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Brian A. Floyd (S’98–M’01) received the B.S. (with
highest honors), M.Eng., and Ph.D. degrees in elec-
trical and computer engineering from the University
of Florida, Gainesville, in 1996, 1998, and 2001,
respectively. While at the University of Florida,
he held the Intersil/SRC Graduate Fellowship and
the Pittman Fellowship. His doctoral research on
wireless interconnects was a Phase One winner and
a Phase Two first runnerup in the 2000 SRC Copper
Design Contest.
In 2001, he joined IBM and is presently a Research
Staff Member at the IBM T. J. Watson Research Center, Yorktown Heights, NY,
engaged in millimeter-wave, RF, and high-speed wired integrated circuit design.
Scott K. Reynolds received the B.S.E.E. degree from
the University of Michigan in 1983, the M.S.E.E. de-
gree from Stanford University in 1984, and the Ph.D.
degree in electrical engineering, also from Stanford
in 1987.
He joined IBM in 1988 and is presently a Re-
search Staff Member at the IBM T. J. Watson
Research Center in Yorktown Heights, New York.
His job responsibilities have involved analog and
mixed-signal circuit design for high speed commu-
nication systems, including optical, wired, and RF
wireless systems, and disk drive channels. Currently, he is engaged primarily
in development of RFICs for high data rate wireless communication links.
167
Ullrich R. Pfeiffer received the diploma degree in
physics and the Ph.D. degree in physics from the Uni-
versity of Heidelberg, Germany, in 1996 and 1999,
respectively.
In 1997, he worked as a Research Fellow at the
Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Oxfordshire, U.K.,
where he developed high-speed multi-chip modules.
In 2000, his research was based on high-integrated
real-time electronics for a particle physics exper-
iment at the European Organization for Nuclear
Research (CERN), Switzerland. He joined IBM
in 2001 and is presently a Research Staff Member at the IBM T. J. Watson
Research Center. His research involves RF circuit design, high-power amplifier
design at 60 GHz and 77 GHz, high-frequency modeling and packaging for
60-GHz and 3G cellular systems.
Thomas Zwick (M’00) received the Dipl.-Ing.
(M.S.E.E.) and the Dr.-Ing. (Ph.D.E.E.) degrees
from the Universität Karlsruhe (TH), Germany in
1994 and 1999, respectively.
From 1994 to 2001 he was a Research Assis-
tant at the Institut für Höchstfrequenztechnik und
Elektronik (IHE) at the Universität Karlsruhe (TH),
Germany. Since February 2001, he has been with
the IBM T. J. Watson Research Center, Yorktown
Heights, NY. His research topics include wave
propagation, stochastic channel modeling, channel
measurement techniques, material measurements, microwave techniques,
wireless communication system design and millimeter wave antenna design.
He participated as an expert in the European COST231 Evolution of Land
Mobile Radio (Including Personal) Communications and COST259 Wireless
Flexible Personalized Communications. For the Carl Cranz Series for Scientific
Education, he served as a lecturer for Wave Propagation.
Dr. Zwick received the Best Paper Award from the International Symposium
on Spread Spectrum Technology and Applications (ISSSTA) 1998.
Troy Beukema received the B.S.E.E. and M.S.E.E. degrees from Michigan
Technological University in 1984 and 1988, respectively.
From 1984 to 1988, he was an R&D Engineer with Hewlett-Packard in the
area of communications test equipment. He joined Motorola in 1989 and con-
tributed to development of digital cellular wireless systems with a focus on dig-
ital signal processing algorithm design and implementation. In 1996, he joined
IBM, where he is presently a research staff member involved in communications
system research. His research interests include communication link system de-
sign and simulation, with an emphasis on signal processing algorithms for wire-
less and high-speed wireline channels.
Brian Gaucher performed his undergraduate work
at the Univesity of Massachusetts and graduate work
at Northeastern University.
From 1982 to 1983, he worked at Alpha Industries
R&D Laboratory designing microwave GaAsFET
amplifiers, switches detectors limiters, filters, and
supercomponents. In 1984, he joined GTE Commu-
nication Systems Division, working in the area of
research and development of secure spread spectrum
communication and radar systems for the military,
across the 900 MHz to 60 GHz frequency bands. In
1993, he joined IBM and is presently a Research Staff Member at the IBM
T. J. Watson Research Center, Yorktown Heights, NY, where he manages a
communication system design and characterization group. His present research
interests include 60 GHz Gb/s wireless communication design and biomedical
applications of wireless technology. His group has helped more than five
products come to market.
Dr. Gaucher is an IBM master inventor and holds two outstanding technical
achievement awards and one corporate award.