Front-End Blocks of a W-Band Dicke Radiometer in SiGe BiCMOS Technology

In this brief, design methodology and measurement results of W-Band Dicke radiometer blocks are presented. The Dicke radiometer blocks are implemented in IHPs 0.13-μm SiGe BiCMOS technology. All the implemented blocks, namely the SPDT switch, LNA and the power detector demonstrate the state of the art performance at W-Band. The SPDT has a measured IL of 1.8 dB and 20 dB isolation. The LNA achieves a peak gain of 22.3 dB and 4.2 dB NF and the PD has a NEP better than 0.5 pW/√Hz. To achieve the minimum NETD, all the blocks are designed to be as wideband as possible. Using the measurement and simulation results, the achievable NETD of the radiometer is calculated to be better than 0.5 K.