| dc.description.abstract | In this thesis, a radiometer receiver based on gallium arsenide (GaAs) high-electron-mobility transistor (HEMT) process, a W-band down-conversion mixer using CMOS process and a high-power amplifier using gallium nitride (GaN) process are presented. The radiometer receiver includes three blocks, single-pole double-throw (SPDT) switch, low noise amplifier, and power detector.
In Chapter two, a SPDT switch is presented using 0.15-μm GaAs-PIN HEMT process provided by WIN Semiconductors corporation. The SPDT switch at the front-end of the radiometer receiver can be used to switch signal from antenna or calibrate using noise source. The following circuit after SPDT switch is a low noise amplifier (LNA) which can dramatically increase radiometer’s responsivity and largely decrease noise equivalent power. The LNA is realized using three-stage source degeneration architecture. At the output of the radiometer receiver is a power detector which is designed using differential signal input architecture. Since the power detector needs a differential signal input, an active balanced-to-unbalanced circuit is employed. The radiometer receiver achieves a maximum responsivity of 1.2 MV/W and a minimum noise equivalent power of 10 fW/√Hz at 33 GHz. The operation frequency bandwidth is 2.8 GHz. The total chip size of the radiometer receiver is 3×1 mm2.
In Chapter three, a W-band down-conversion mixer is realized using TSMC 90 nm process. To achieve wide operation frequency, a Darlington-mixing cell with LO source-pumped architecture is chosen and to enhance isolation from LO port to RF port, a Marchand Balun is also designed. The length of the compensated line and couple line in Marchand Balun are further analyzed and discussed in this chapter. While the LO power is 5 dBm, the mixer achieves a conversion gain of -12.5 dB. The RF port frequency bandwidth is from 75 to 115 GHz. The isolation from LO port to RF port is 36 dB at 60 GHz. The noise figure is 18 dB with a total dc power consumption of 2.6 mW. The chip size of the down-conversion mixer is 0.88×0.73 mm2.
In Chapter four, a Ka-band power amplifier (PA) is realized using WIN Semiconductors corporation 0.15 μm GaN process. In modern transmitter system, high output power and high linearity PA plays an important role. To combine four transistor output power and achieve wide bandwidth at the same time, a wide transmission line is utilized in this power amplifier. The proposed PA achieves a small-signal gain of 10.1 dB, an output 1-dB compression power of 17.1 dBm, an output saturated power of 21 dBm, and an OIP3 of 27 dBm. The total chip size of the power amplifier is 3×1.4 mm2.
In final chapter, conclusions and future works are presented. | en_US |