A fully integrated Q-band bidirectional transceiver in 0.12-µm SiGe BiCMOS technology

A fully integrated Q-band (40~45 GHz) bidirectional transceiver is demonstrated in a 0.12-μm SiGe BiCMOS technology. The RF front-end design eliminates the need for transmit/receive switches by demonstrating a novel PA/LNA circuit. The transceiver has a transmit conversion gain of 35 dB with a 3-dB bandwidth of 4 GHz. The OP1dB is 8.5 dBm and Psat is 9.5 dBm. The transceiver has a receive conversion gain of 34 dB with a 3-dB bandwidth of 3 GHz. The noise figure is 4.7 dB and OP1dB is -5 dBm at 43 GHz. The chip consumes 119.4 mW when transmitting and 54 mW when receiving, and overall chip size is 1.6 mm×0.8 mm including pads. To the author's knowledge, this work represents the first switchless millimeter-wave bidirectional transceiver in a CMOS or BiCMOS processes.