SiGe/CMOS Millimeter-Wave Integrated Circuits and Wafer-Scale Packaging for Phased Array ...

154 Pages·2008·9.43 MB·English

SiGe/CMOS Millimeter-Wave Integrated Circuits and
Wafer-Scale Packaging for Phased Array Systems
by
ByungwookMin
Adissertationsubmittedinpartialfulfillment
oftherequirementsforthedegreeof
DoctorofPhilosophy
(ElectricalEngineering)
inTheUniversityofMichigan
2008
DoctoralCommittee:
AssistantProfessorDavidD.Wentzloff,Co-Chair
ProfessorGabrielM.Rebeiz,Co-Chair,UniversityofCalifornia,SanDiego
ProfessorAmirMortazawi
ProfessorWayneE.Stark
(cid:176)c ByungwookMin
AllRightsReserved
2008
ToMyParentsandWife
ii
Acknowledgments
Thisdissertationwouldnothavebeenpossiblewithoutthehelpofnumerouspeople. Firstand
foremost,IwouldliketothankmydissertationadvisorDr. GabrielM.Rebeizforhisguidanceand
encouragement throughout my masters and doctoral programs. I met Dr. Rebeiz for the first time
whenItookhismicrowavecircuitsclassinmymastersprogram. Henotonlytaughtmemicrowave
engineeringbutalso,andmoreimportantly,’howtothink’inmicrowave. ThegreatinspirationIre-
ceivedfromhiminthatclassnaturallyledmetojoinhisresearchgroup,TICS(Telecom. Integrated
CircuitsandSystems). AsIworkedwithDr. Rebeizclosely,hisdedicationtoresearchandstudents
furtherinspiredme. HetaughtmemanyimportantlessonsinlifewhichIbelievewillalwaysguide
mefortherestofmylife. Also,thankstohim(hisjoiningtheUniversityofCalifornia,SanDiego),
I had the opportunity to live and work in the beautiful sunny city San Diego for the last two years
ofmydoctoralstudy.
Next,Iwouldliketothankmydissertationcommitteemembers,Drs. DavidD.Wentzloff,Amir
Mortazawi,andWayneE.Starkfortheirprecioustimeandvaluablesuggestionsfortheworkdone
in this dissertation. Dr. Wentzloff, who served as co-chair on the committee, was a new faculty
memberinourdepartment, andsinceIwasworkinginSanDiego, Ididnothavemanychancesto
meetwithhiminperson. However,hereallyputhisextratimeandeffortintoreviewingmydisserta-
tionandgavememanygreatcommentsforimprovingthedissertation. Dr. Mortazawi,fromwhom
Itooktwocoursesinmydoctoralprogram(andIwanttomentionthatheistheonlyprofessorfrom
whom I took more than one course other than my advisor), taught me many interesting topics in
microwave circuit designs that nourished my dissertation research in various aspects. I also thank
Dr. Stark, who served on the committee as a cognate member, for his insightful and constructive
feedbackonthedissertation.
IwasalsoveryluckytomeetthefollowingindividualsfromwhomIlearnedalot. Mythanksgo
outtoDr. MichaelFlynnforteachingmeanalog/RFICdesigns,andDr. KhalilNajafiforteaching
me MEMS and micro-fabrication. Also, I thank Dr. Kamal Sarabandi, the director of Radiation
iii
laboratory at the University of Michigan. I am also grateful to Dr. Larry Larson whom I met at
UCSD.Myresearchanddissertationwouldnothavebeencompletedwithoutthesupportandhelp
fromthefollowingorganizationandpeople. IthankUSArmyResearchLabs(ARL)forsupporting
theSiGephasedarrayresearch. WithouttheaccesstotheIBMMPW,myresearchwouldnothave
beenpossible. Iamalsodeeplygratefulforthegenerousfinancialsupportandencouragementfrom
Samsung Scholarship Foundation in Korea and all the assistance and help from Yongnyeon Kim,
theDirectorofthefoundation.
I cannot leave out my wonderful colleagues and friends since they not only gave me a lot of
support but also made my long journey much more cheerful. My thanks go to all of the Rad-
lab and TICS senior students including Kamran Entesari, Bryan Hung, Timothy Hancock, Abbas
A.Tamijani, Jose Cabanillas-Costas, Denis Mercier, Bernhard Schoenlinner, Tauno Vaha-Heikkila,
and Noriyo Nishijima. I also thank Yongshik Lee for teaching me probe measurement and micro-
fabrication techniques and also for being a good mentor and friend. I also thank my TICS friends,
Michael Chang, Chris Galbraith, Carson White, Sang-June Park, Alex Girchner, and Mohammed
El-Tanani,andalsomanyotherwonderfulindividualsImetatUCSDincludingDr. JongkwanYook,
Jeonggeun Kim, Tiku Yu, Sangyoung Kim, Kwangjin Kho, Jason May, Balaji Lakshminarayana,
DongWoo Kang, Jung-Mu Kim, Isak Reines, Berke Cetinoneri, Yusuf Atesal, and Ramadan Al-
halabi. I also extend many thanks to my Korean friends with whom I share great memories of
AnnArborandMichigan: JonghoonChoi,SanghyunSeo,SangwonYoon,SanghyunLee,Junseok
Chae,DongsookKim,SongkukKim,JunghwanHan,JunyungParkandJaeyoungKang.
MyspecialanddeepestappreciationsgoouttomyfamilymemberstowhomIowesomuch. I
thankmyparentsJoongsigMinandKyungheeChoifortheirlove,prayers,andendlesssupportnot
onlythroughoutthefewyearsofmydoctoralprogrambutthroughoutmyentirelife. Iwouldliketo
thank my sister Byunghee Min, brother-in-law Changdo Gong, and their lovely Joonbae and Yoo-
jung as well. My appreciation also goes to my father and mother-in-law for their encouragement.
Finally,IwouldliketothankmydearestwifeHyejeungforalwaysstandingbyme,comfortingme,
andbelievinginme. ThanksHyejeungforgivingmethecourageandmotivationtokeepgoing!
iv
Table of Contents
Dedication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ii
Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . iii
ListofTables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . viii
ListofFigures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix
Chapter1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.1 PhasedArraySystems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.2 PhasedArrayArchitectures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1.3 RFPhase-ShiftingTransmit/ReceiveModule . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
1.4 SiGeBiCMOSProcess . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
1.5 ObjectiveandContentsofThesis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Chapter2 Ka-BandSiGeVariableGainLowNoiseAmplifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
2.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
2.2 LowNoiseAmplifierDesignTheory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
2.3 Ka-BandSiGeLowNoiseAmplifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
2.3.1 CircuitDesign . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
2.3.2 MeasuredResults . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
2.4 VariableGainAmplifierDesignTheory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
2.5 DifferentialVariableGainLowNoiseAmplifier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
2.5.1 CircuitDesign . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
2.5.2 MeasuredResults . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
2.6 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Chapter3 Ka-BandCMOSPhaseShifterandPhasedArrayReceiverFront-Ends . . 30
3.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
3.2 PhaseShifterDesign . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
3.2.1 TransmissionLineandPadTransition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
3.2.2 CMOSSwitches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
3.2.3 Single-EndedSwitched-DelayPhaseShifter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
3.2.4 Differential4-BitPhaseShifter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
3.3 PhaseShifterMeasurements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
3.3.1 Single-Ended4-BitPhaseShifter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
3.3.2 Differential4-BitPhaseShifter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
3.4 ReceiverFront-EndMeasurements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
3.4.1 Single-EndedLNA/PhaseShifter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
v
3.4.2 DifferentialVG-LNA/PhaseShifter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
3.5 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Chapter4 10−50GHzCMOSDistributedStepAttenuator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
4.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
4.2 DesignTheory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
4.2.1 ConventionalDesignLimitations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
4.2.2 DistributedAttenuatorConcept . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
4.3 CircuitDesignandLayout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
4.3.1 NMOSVaristors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
4.3.2 SyntheticTransmissionLines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
4.4 SimulationandMeasurement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
4.4.1 AttenuationandPhaseBalance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
4.4.2 PowerHandling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
4.5 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
Chapter5 Ka-BandLow-LossandHigh-IsolationSwitchin0.13-m mCMOS . . . . . 74
5.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
5.2 CMOSSwitches. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
5.2.1 CMOSTransistorandSubstrateNetwork . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
5.2.2 CMOSSwitchModel. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
5.3 SPSTandSPDTSwitchDesign . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
5.3.1 Low-R SeriesSPSTSwitch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
sub
5.3.2 Low-R ShuntSPSTandSPDTSwitches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
sub
5.3.3 High-R SeriesSPSTandSPDTSwitches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
sub
5.3.4 High-R DeepN-WellSeries-ShuntSPDTSwitch . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
sub
5.4 SimulatedandMeasuredResults . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
5.4.1 SPSTSwitches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
5.4.2 SPDTSwitches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
5.4.3 PowerHandlingandLinearity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
5.5 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
Chapter6 AKa-BandBiCMOST/RModuleforPhasedArrayApplications . . . . . 92
6.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
6.2 DesignandImplementation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
6.3 Measurements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
6.4 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
Chapter7 Low-LossSilicon-on-SiliconDC−110GHzResonance-FreePackage . . . . 100
7.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
7.2 PackageDesign . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
7.2.1 PackageTransition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
7.2.2 Gold-RingGrounding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
7.3 Fabrication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
7.3.1 FabricationFlow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
7.3.2 Gold-to-GoldThermo-CompressionBonding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
7.4 SimulationandMeasurement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
7.4.1 TransitionLoss . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
vi
7.4.2 PackageResonanceandGroupVelocity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
7.4.3 IsolationandLeakage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
7.5 ExtensiontoaResonance-FreeSPNTSwitches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
7.6 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
Chapter8 ConclusionandFutureWork . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
8.1 SummaryandConclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
8.2 FutureWork . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
8.2.1 Multi-ElementPhasedArrayT/RModule . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
8.2.2 SiGeBiCMOSProcessforMillimeter-WaveApplications . . . . . . . . . 122
Appendix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
vii
List of Tables
Table
1.1 RelativePerformanceComparisonsofDifferentDeviceTechnologies. . . . . . . . 9
2.1 SummaryoftheVG-LNADesignValues. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
4.1 On/OffSelectionof12ShuntVaristorsSpaced22.5◦ ApartandTheElectricalDis-
tanceBetweenTheActuatedVaristors((cid:170):ON(Actuated),−:OFFwithR =4Z ). 60
P ◦
5.1 PerformanceSummaryofTheKa-BandCMOSSwitches.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
7.1 SummaryofMeasuredandSimulatedCharacteristicsofCPWLineandGold-Ring
Transition. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
viii
List of Figures
Figure
1.1 (a) NASA’s High Data Rate User Phased Array Antenna (HRUPAA) for Ka-band
satellite communications and (b) Alaska District’s 90-foot diameter phased array
radarformissilewarningandspacesurveillance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.2 Phasedarraysystemwith8antennaelements. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
1.3 Normalizedarrayfactorof16elementphasedantennaarraywithuniformillumina-
tion and different antenna spacing when the phased array steers the antenna beam
toq =30◦. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.4 Phasedarrayreceiverarchitectures: (a)RFphaseshifting,(b)IFphaseshifting,(c)
LOphaseshifting,and(d)digitalbeamforming. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
1.5 Varioussystemarchitecturesoftransmitter/receivermodules. . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
1.6 Arrayfactorofa16-elementphasedarrayscanningevery3◦ from−60◦ to60◦ with
4-bitphaseshifters(d=l /2). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
1.7 Normalizedarrayfactorof16elementphasedantennaarraywithdifferentantenna
weightingwhenthephasedarraysteerstheantennabeamtoq =30◦. . . . . . . . 8
1.8 Simulated cutoff frequency (f ) and noise figure minimum of a transistor with a
T
emitterlengthof12m mversuscollectorcurrent. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
1.9 SystemblockdiagramoftheKa-bandphasedarrayT/Rmodule. . . . . . . . . . . 11
2.1 CascodelownoiseamplifierwithaMillercapacitance,CM replacingCm atthebase
node. Z (cid:48)=133−j57 (W ), Z =76−j45 (W ) and 1/jw C =167−j147 (W ) with
IN IN M
(cid:96) =8m m,I =2.5mAandL =105pH. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
E C E
2.2 Simulatedinputandoptimalnoise(a)resistanceand(b)reactancewithandwithout
Cm versusLE,when(cid:96)E=8m mandIC=2.5mA.Forthesimulationwithouttheeffect
ofCm ,ainductorisconnectedbetweenthebaseandcollectortoresonateoutCm . . 17
2.3 SimulatedG ofacascodeamplifierversusL ,when(cid:96) =8m mandI =2.5mA. 18
OPT−IN E E C
2.4 Simulatedminimumnoisefigureandoptimalnoiseresistancecontourasafunction
oftheemitterlengthandcollectorcurrentwhenL =0. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
E
2.5 (a)Schematicand(b)photographoftheKa-bandLNA. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
2.6 Measuredandsimulated(a)gainandnoisefigure,and(b)inputandoutputreturnloss. 21
2.7 Measuredpowerhandlingcapability. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
2.8 BasictypesofVGA:(a)biascontrol,(b)feedbackcontrol,and(c)currentsplitting. 23
2.9 Currentsteeringlinear-in-magnitudeVGAwithdigitalcontrols. . . . . . . . . . . 23
2.10 SchematicofthedesignedKa-banddifferentialVG-LNA.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
2.11 PhotographofthedesignedKa-banddifferentialVG-LNA. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
2.12 Measuredandsimulatedgainandinputreturnlossofthe8differentgainstates. . . 27
2.13 Measuredandsimulatednoisefiguresofthe8differentgainstates. . . . . . . . . . 27
2.14 Measuredrelativeinsertionphaseandrmsphaseimbalanceforallgainstates. . . . 28
2.15 Measuredoutputpowerandgainversustheinputpower. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
ix