A Compact Codesign of Antenna-LNA Sub-System for 60GHz Communication

Abstract

In this work, a high-performance patch antenna with optimized inductive loop for 60GHz communication (efficiency >65%, gain GA>6.5dBi and bandwidth BW>500MHz) is presented, which achieve antenna impedance ZANT similar to optimum impedance ZOPTLNA required for minimum noise for low noise amplifier (LNA). Thus, facilitating their co-design without using 50ohm matching network (MN), and make the design compact and low cost. As compared to the traditional MN approach, the co-design offers improvement in the LNA’s (realized using the IHP 0.13 um BiCMOS) transfer gain S21, and noise Figure NF. By taking a physics-based equivalent circuit model for ‘Antenna-LNA’ sub-system, and carrying out small-signal, theoretically predicted S-parameters were found closely matched with corresponding simulated results. The Figure-of-Merit (FoM) involving S21, noise Figure NF, and power consumption PDC was found to be significantly higher for SiGe BiCMOS than a previously reported results using the advanced silicon CMOS technology.