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Fabrication and Electrical Performance of Oscillators in GaAs/GaInP-HBT MMIC Technology up to 40 GHz
(2002)
A MMIC Colpitts oscillator in push-push configuration with integrated frequency divider using InGaP/GaAs HBTs is presented. The output is taken from the second harmonic port while the fundamental signal is fed to a frequency divider by two thus providing a reference signal at one quarter of the output frequency. The MMIC VCO reaches state-of-the-art phase-noise performance in X-band down to -120dBc/Hz at 1MHz offset frequency at high output power and a tuning range of 4%.
In this paper, optimization of the loaded quality factor Q<sub>L</sub> for reflection-type heterojunction bipolar transistor (HBT) oscillators is investigated. The main result is an optimum relation between the S-parameter phases at the three transistor ports. A new design strategy for this type of oscillator is proposed. The analysis is verified by comparing several Ka-band monolithic-microwave integrated-circuit oscillators in GaAs HBT technology with different resonators. The measured loaded Q<sub>L</sub> values correspond to the measured phase noise of the circuits. At an oscillation frequency of 33 GHz, an excellent phase noise of -87 dBc/Hz at 100-kHz offset frequency is achieved over the whole tuning range.
A flip-chip packaging approach for W-band GaAs chips is presented using thin-film structures on silicon as carrier substrate. Reliability investigations indicate that, depending on bump size, the CTE mismatch is not critical and an underfiller does not provide distinctive benefits. A 77 GHz VCO GaAs-HBT MMIC is flip-chip-mounted to demonstrate validity of the packaging scheme.
A new method is presented how to characterize multiport devices using a two-port vector network-analyzer (VNA). Up to now, at least one of the port terminations had to be fully known to measure the S-parameters of the device. Our new measurement method overcomes this restriction. All of the device parameters and all of the port terminations are calculated from the device measurements.
In this paper, optimization of the loaded quality factor QL for reflection-type HBT oscillator is investigated. Main result is an optimum relation between the S parameter phases at the three transistor ports. To support this finding, a 35.5 GHz MMIC VCO phase noise better than -85 dBc/Hz at 100 kHz offset frequency is demonstrated.
Coplanar W-band push-push VCO MMICs using GaInP/GaAs HBTs are presented. One circuit operates at 77 GHz with phase noise of -92 dBc/Hz at 1 MHz offset. To our knowledge this is the first fully monolithic W-band VCO with phase noise better than -90 dBc/Hz. A second version with two varactor diodes yields an almost threefold relative tuning bandwidth.
Two differential coplanar MMIC HBT oscillators are presented, a fixed frequency and a VCO version. They provide single-ended output at the second harmonic at 38 GHz as well as differential output at 19 GHz. The oscillators show excellent phase noise performance, the fixed-frequency type reaches -95 dBc/Hz at the fundamental frequency and -89 dBc/Hz at the second harmonic, at 100 kHz offset.
In low-power applications FETs with small gate width are required. For such devices common extraction methods fail. In particular, extracting source inductance and drain pad capacitance using "cold"-FET measurements is no longer possible. We present an improved method that allows reliable extraction of extrinsic elements for small-sized FETs.
Monolithic coplanar 18 and 36 GHz oscillators with GaInP/GaAs-HBTs and on-chip resonators are presented. Measured phase-noise reaches -93 dBc/Hz and -91 dBc/Hz at 100 kHz offset for 18 and 36 GHz, respectively. These values demonstrate that GaAs-HBT oscillators yield a phase-noise performance comparable to SiGe-HBTs, with the potential for higher frequencies.