A Differential Traveling Wave Active Power Divider in 130 nm SiGe:BiCMOS Technology for Application in Receiver Synchronization

This paper presents the design of a differential traveling wave active power divider in 130 nm SiGe:C BiCMOS technology with ${\mathrm {{f}_{ t}/ {f}_{max}}}$ of 250/300 GHz. Utilizing the inherent properties of a traveling wave topology and a loss compensation technique with input emitter followers, a forward small signal gain of 10 dB for a 3-dB bandwidth of 42 GHz has been achieved. The cross-talk between the input and the output lines was avoided using ground isolation layer. A symmetric layout was ensured in order to achieve matched outputs with a maximum difference in gain of 0.5 dB. The measured input compression point ${\mathrm {{P}_{-1dB}}}$ is 2 dBm. With each side consuming a DC power of 250 mW, the active power divider consumes a total DC power of 500 mW.