A mixed-signal X-band SiGe multi-function control MMIC for phased array radar applications

In this paper is reported the design, fabrication and test of a mixed-signal SiGe X-band multi-function control MMIC for phased array radar applications. Said MMIC, fabricated, with the ST-Microelectronics BiCMOS7RF SiGe technology, comprises a 5-bit phase shifter, 5-bit attenuator, SPDT switches, several gain amplifiers and a digital serial to parallel converter to reduce the number of MMIC I/O control lines. The gain amplifiers are implemented using SiGe HBTs, while phase shifter, attenuator and SPDT switches are based on CMOS transistors. The measurement results show a return loss better than 15 dB and a gain of 17 dB, equal in both RX and TX state. In RX mode the obtained noise figure is lower than 10 dB, while in TX mode the output P1dB is higher than 12 dBm. The achieved RF performance, the low power consumption and associated low cost, make this SiGe control-chip an attractive solution for high performance/low cost Tx/Rx components for phased array radar applications.