A 24.25-30.5GHz Fully Integrated SiGe Phase Shifter/VGA/Power Amplifier in 0.13μm BiCMOS Technology for 5G Beamforming Applications

Abstract

This paper presents a 24.25GHz to 30.5GHz wideband SiGe front-end module including a passive phase shifter (PS), a low impedance and low phase variation variable gain amplifier (VGA) and a linear power amplifier (PA) dedicated to beamforming architectures. The whole chip exhibits 33dB of maximum gain, 24dBm of saturation power (Psat) and 32.5% of maximum Power Added Efficiency (PAEmax) at 27GHz. Phase adjustment covers 360° with a minimum resolution of 5.6° and gain covers a 16dB range by 0.5dB steps. The circuit is implemented in a SiGe 130nm BiCMOS process and occupies 0.53 mm² without pads.