In this paper is reported the design, fabrication and
test of a mixed-signal SiGe X-band multi-function control MMIC
for phased array radar applications. Said MMIC, fabricated
with the ST-Microelectronics BiCMOS7RF SiGe technology,
comprises a 5-bit phase shifter, 5-bit attenuator, SPDT switches,
several gain amplifiers and a digital serial to parallel converter to
reduce the number of MMIC I/O control lines.
The gain amplifiers are implemented using SiGe HBTs, while
phase shifter, attenuator and SPDT switches are based on CMOS
transistors.
The measurement results show a return loss better than 15 dB
and a gain of 17 dB, equal in both RX and TX state. In RX mode
the obtained noise figure is lower than 10 dB, while in TX mode
the output P1dB is higher than 12 dBm.
The achieved RF performance, the low power consumption and
associated low cost, make this SiGe control-chip an attractive
solution for high performance/low cost Tx/Rx components for
phased array radar applications.