Low noise amplifiers and voltage variable attenuators for SUB-6 GHZ 5G receiver systems

Official URL: https://risc01.sabanciuniv.edu/record=b2766812_(Table of contents)

To achieve the demanding performance specifications of the new generation of communication systems (5G), such as increased high data rate, communication distance, and low latency, better receiver systems, and new design methodologies are needed. Moreover, as the number of users increases and the area of usage of RF transmitter/ receiver devices broadens tremendously in recent years, the cost of RF systems gained more importance; thus, the die area became another design concern. Additionally, decreasing the power consumption also gained importance as the number of IoT and health monitoring devices increases where battery life is critical. One of the requirements of 5G is a higher data rate, and in order to meet this requirement, the noise performance of the RF receiver system should be improved. Furthermore, to increase the maximum range of the communication, receiver systems with higher gain should be aimed. Finally, multi-stage sub-blocks such as digital-step attenuators should be replaced with novel and very small attenuator topologies to decrease the die area and reduce the fabrication cost of receiver systems. This thesis focuses on designing and implementing sub-blocks of radio frequency (RF) integrated receiver (Rx) systems such as LNAs and attenuators for the Sub-6 GHz 5G communication. The presented SiGe BiCMOS LNA is designed and fabricated with IHP 130 nm SiGe BiCMOS technology, and it achieves a 27.7 dB gain and 1.15 dB noise figure, which is one of the best performance among the SiGe BiCMOS LNAs in its frequency band. In addition, two LNAs are designed and fabricated in GlobalFoundries 130 nm SOI CMOS technology, and these LNAs have a gain of 30.5 dB and 0.85 dB NF. Finally, two VVAs are designed with GlobalFoundries 130 nm SOI CMOS technology. The first VVA is fabricated and measured so that it achieves 6-bit attenuation performance over DC - 27 GHz frequency range, while the second VVA reaches ultra-high precision of 0.12 mdB attenuation per step inside the DC - 10 GHz frequency range.