A Monolithic 5-Bit SiGe BiCMOS Receiver for X-Band Phased-Array Radar Systems

Abstract

This work presents a 5-bit receiver for X-band phased-array radar applications based on a commercially-available silicon-germanium (SiGe) BiCMOS technology. The receiver achieves a gain of 11 dB, an operational bandwidth from 8.0 to 10.7 GHz, an average noise figure of 4.1 dB, and an input-referred third-order intercept point (IIP <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">3</sub> ) of-13 dBm, while only dissipating 33 mW of power. The receiver also provides 32 distinct phase states from 0 to 360deg, with an rms phase error < 9deg. This level of circuit performance and integration capability demonstrates the benefits of SiGe BiCMOS technology for emerging radar applications, making it an excellent candidate for integrated X-band phased-array radar transmit/receive modules.