UTSi® CMOS tunable RF front-end filters and LNAs for wide-band phased array antennas

We have studied the possibility to realize tunable RF front-end filters and LNAs for wide-band phased arrays using a 0.25 mum UTSi reg (ultra thin silicon) CMOS low cost technology. Measured results of an X-band passive filter-bank and a C-band active tunable filter show that adequate performance can be obtained (in terms of relatively low losses or high gain and out-of-band rejection over wide tuning ranges) while using small circuit areas. The UTSi reg CMOS based RF components we present in this paper could contribute to the miniaturization and integration of RF front-ends in phased arrays.