A 35mW, 2.32dB NF, 1.1∘ Phase error, 18-21.2GHz Beamforming Receiver IC for SatCom on the Move (SOTM) Phased Arrays

This paper presents a low-power and low-noise K-band (18-21.2GHz) analog beamforming receiver (BFIC-Rx) IC for Satcom on the Move (SOTM) applications. The BFIC-Rx employs a 2-stage cascode LNA, a modified Gilbert-cell type dB-linear VGA and a passive phase shifter (PS) in the signal chain for low cascaded noise figure (NF) and low power consumption. The cascode LNA has low NF and a high gain of 24dB for RF input isolation to the subsequent stages. The VGA has a 15dB dB-linear gain, controllable in 0.5dB fine steps, and a 180∘ phase shift feature. The passive PS has 5-bit control plus 2 bits for calibration and together with VGA's 180∘, achieves a total phase shift of 360∘. The BFIC-Rx achieves a state-of-art NF of 2.32dB, a total signal gain of 31dB, IP1dB of -35.8 dBm, phase, and amplitude error of 1.1∘ and