A compact 24-54 GHz CMOS band-pass DA for high

fractional-bandwidth signal amplification

V. Bhagavatula, M. Taghivand, J. C. Rudell

(RMO-2B-1)

RFIC –Tampa 1-3 June 2014

High resolution motion tracking

MobileTarget Object

Δτ

𝑑Δ𝑑

TX1

TX2

High bandwidth data communication

Outline

• Distributed Amplifier Architecture• Low-pass to Band-pass transformation• Norton Transformation• Physical implementation• Measurement Results

RFIC –Tampa 1-3 June 2014Slide 3

Distributed architecture

RFIC –Tampa 1-3 June 2014

• Divide and conquer approach• Key challenge: Large number of inductors

Rs

RL

2W/L W/L W/L

2CI

2Co Co Co

CI CI

RL

LI

Lo

Low-Pass to Band-Pass Transformation

RFIC –Tampa 1-3 June 2014Slide 5

LPDA

Gm Gm

Vin

Vout

Gm Gm

BPDA

Vin

Vout

N inductors in the LPDA = (2N+1) inductors in the BPDA

Challenges with the canonical BPDA

RFIC –Tampa 1-3 June 2014Slide 6

Band-pass filter

Low-pass filter Normalized component valuesfor a Butterworth filter response

Challenge-1:Challenge-2:

Norton Transformations

RFIC –Tampa 1-3 June 2014Slide 7

• L replaced by LA, LB, LC and N:1 transformer • For N>1, LB is negative

LV1 V2

1:N

LB

LA

LC

V1 V2

Circuit Reduction - 1

RFIC –Tampa 1-3 June 2014Slide 8

Circuit Reduction - 2

RFIC –Tampa 1-3 June 2014Slide 9

Dual mirror-symmetric Norton

RFIC –Tampa 1-3 June 2014Slide 10

•

Start

Final

RFIC –Tampa 1-3 June 2014

L1

L2

L3

C1

C2

C1

180pH

800pH

180pH

175fF45fF

175fF

L1/2

C1

4C2

175fF180fF

C1 175fF

90pH90pH

55pH

L1/2

Lx/4

L1/2 90pH90pH55pH

L1/2Lx/4

Canonical Norton Reduced

Component reduction

Gain-cell Design

Slide 12

Cell-A Cell-B

•

Drain Band Pass Filter

Output

Input Cell-BCell-A

Chip Details

Slide 14

• TSMC 40nm

• 6 Metal Stack

• 1 UTM Layer

• Total Area : 0.45mm2

• Core Area : 0.15mm2

Input Output

Power

DC-Bias

RFIC –Tampa 1-3 June 2014Slide 15

Measured S-Parameters

Noise-Figure Measurement Test Set-Up

N8975A

N5183A

346CK01

0V28V

HD300556-18 GHz

M9-0950LNV

+10dBm

ChuckDie

GSG GSG

25-55 GHz 25-55 GHz

6-18 GHz

18-40 GHz

DC RFNoise FigureAnalyzer

Analog SignalGenerator

Slide 17

Measured Noise and Linearity

RFIC –Tampa 1-3 June 2014

Comparison with state-of-the-art

RFIC –Tampa 1-3 June 2014

Conclusions

• Compact band pass distributed amplifier using Norton transforms

• Design and layout principles discussed.• Implemented in a 40nm CMOS technology• Core area of 0.15mm^2 and a pass-band

of 24-to-54 GHz

RFIC –Tampa 1-3 June 2014

Acknowldegments

• Dr. David Allstot• Qualcomm• CDADIC

RFIC –Tampa 1-3 June 2014

Slide 21

Thank You

RFIC –Tampa 1-3 June 2014