In a major breakthrough for silicon technologies, two Si-based millimeter-wave power amplifiers have demonstrated record performances in terms of their output power levels. This could open the door to higher-output chips that allow integration with complex analog and digital signal processing.
The development of Si-based millimeter-wave power amplifiers could significantly improve the performance and cost of development for satellite communication technologies.
Two teams of DARPA performers worked on different approaches to the technology. The first team was made up of members from the University of Southern California and Columbia University. They were able to achieve output power levels of approximately 0.5 W at 45 gigahertz with a 45-nanometer silicon complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) chip.
Image of the chip that the USC / Columbia team produced.
These numbers are a world record, doubling the output power compared to the second-best reported CMOS millimeter-wave power amplifier.
The chip the USC / Columbia team created stacked 45-nanometer silicon-on-insulator CMOS devices in order to increase the technology’s effective output voltage swing and allow for efficient 8-way on-chip power-combining.
An official report will be presented at the 2013 Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Radio Frequency Integrated Circuits Symposium.
The second team was comprised of members from MIT and Carnegie Mellon University. They demonstrated a 0.13 micrometer silicon-germanium BiCMOS power amplifier that employed multistage power amplifier cells and efficient 16-way on-chip power-combining.
Image of the chip that the MIT / CMU team produced.
They were able to achieve a power output of 0.7W at 42 gigahertz, 3.5 times more output power than the next best silicon-based millimeter-wave power amplifier.
The group will present their report at the 2013 International Solid-State Circuits Conference.
“Millimeter-wave power amplifiers have been demonstrated at this power level before, but this is a record with silicon-based technologies,” said Sanjay Raman, DARPA program manager. “Producing this level of output with silicon may allow integration on a chip with complex analog and digital signal processing. In the 42-25 GHz range, this would enable high bandwidth / data-rate transmitters needed for satellite communications at potentially very low cost and size, weight and power.”
Story via: darpa.mil
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