95～105 GHz SiGe BiCMOS Wideband Digitally Controlled Attenuator for Metasurface Antenna Design

LUO Jiang; ZHANG Wenzhu; CHENG Qiang

doi:10.11999/JEIT240059

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LUO Jiang, ZHANG Wenzhu, CHENG Qiang. 95～105 GHz SiGe BiCMOS Wideband Digitally Controlled Attenuator for Metasurface Antenna Design[J]. Journal of Electronics & Information Technology. doi: 10.11999/JEIT240059

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LUO Jiang, ZHANG Wenzhu, CHENG Qiang. 95～105 GHz SiGe BiCMOS Wideband Digitally Controlled Attenuator for Metasurface Antenna Design[J]. Journal of Electronics & Information Technology. doi: 10.11999/JEIT240059

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95～105 GHz SiGe BiCMOS Wideband Digitally Controlled Attenuator for Metasurface Antenna Design

doi: 10.11999/JEIT240059

1.
School of Electronics and Information Engineering, Hangzhou Dianzi University, Hangzhou 310018, China
2.
State Key Laboratory of Millimeter Waves, Southeast University, Nanjing 210096, China

Funds: The National Key Research and Development Program of China (2023YFB3811503), The Zhejiang Provincial Natural Science Foundation of China (LQ23F040009), The State Key Laboratory of Millimeter Waves (K202316)

Received Date: 2024-01-26
Rev Recd Date: 2024-09-05

Available Online: 2024-09-10

Abstract

Abstract

Recently, metasurface antenna technology has raised meticulous attention from scholars in the communications, radar, and antenna communities, owing to its great capability in flexible control of electromagnetic waves. In particular, the active tunable device used in the metasurface antenna element is one of the most significant components that affect the performance of the entire system. In this paper, a 95 to 105 GHz digitally controlled attenuator with 5-bit resolution is designed in a 0.13 μm SiGe BiCMOS process. The attenuator employs two different topological structures, reflective and simplified T-type. The 4 dB and 8 dB reflective attenuation units utilize cross-coupled broadband couplers instead of traditional 3 dB couplers or directional couplers, achieving high attenuation precision and low insertion loss. On the other hand, the 0.5 dB, 1 dB, and 2 dB attenuation units adopt a simplified T-type structure. Furthermore, the utilization of RC positive and negative slope correction networks applied separately to different attenuation units enables phase compensation, significantly improving the additional phase shift of the attenuator. Within the desired frequency range of 95～105 GHz, the attenuator achieves an attenuation range of 0～15.5 dB with a step of 0.5 dB in a compact size of 0.12 mm². It exhibits a simulated insertion loss below 2.5 dB, a simulated amplitude Root Mean Square (RMS) error less than 0.25 dB, and a simulated phase RMS error is better than 2.2°. The proposed W-band attenuator can serve as a key component empowering the hardware implementation of an integrated Transmit/Receive (T/R) metasurface antenna system with simultaneous radiation and scattering control.
- SiGe BiCMOS,
- W-band,
- Attenuator,
- Wideband coupler with cross-coupling,
- Metasurface

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References(22)

References

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