Some recent developments of millimeter-wave RFIC attenuators

Abstract

Recent developments of millimeter-wave CMOS radio frequency integrated circuit (RFIC) attenuators possessing switching and band-pass filtering functions are presented. The attenuators are developed using 0.18-µm SiGe BiCMOS technology. The CMOS dual-function attenuator capable of switching is designed for 4-bit operations and 10–67-GHz bandwidth, which achieves measured attenuation flatness of 2.4– 6.8 dB, attenuation range of 32–42 dB, and isolation of 42–67 dB. The minimum attenuation is 8.4–15.2 dB across 10–67 GHz. The 1-dB compression power is greater than 14 dBm at 40 GHz. The CMOS dual-function attenuator with band-pass filtering response is designed for 3-bit operations and 44-GHz center frequency, which has measured insertion loss of 4.4–5.9 dB, RMS amplitude error of 0.8–1.4 dB, RMS phase error of 1.9–6.7° over 36–52 GHz, input P1dB higher than 20 dBm at 44 GHz, and band-pass-filtering response with stop-band rejections greater than 18 dB at 24 and 64 GHz.