The MATRICs RF-FPGA in 180nm SiGe-on-SOI BiCMOS

Abstract

MATRICs (Microwave Array Technology for Reconfigurable Integrated Circuits) is a DC-to-20 GHz general purpose reconfigurable array of RF circuits embedded in a flexible switch fabric. Fabricated in a commercial SiGe-on-SOI BiCMOS process, the MATRICs IC employs SiGe HBTs for high-linearity (> + 10 dBm IIP3) amplification and low phase-noise frequency generation, and SOI FETs for low-loss switching. It achieves high on-chip RF isolation (>80 dB at 16 GHz) due to the high-resistivity SOI substrate, differential signalling, and chip-scale flip-chip bump packaging. MATRICs will allow fixed-function RF systems to have the size, weight, and power benefits of a custom RF ASIC without the associated long development cycle and high NRE, and enable future RF subsystems to be dynamically reconfigured on-the-fly, adapting to changing environments.