학술논문

Low-Noise Si/SiGe HBT for LEO Satellite User Terminals in Ku-Ka Bands
Document Type
Conference
Source
2023 IEEE BiCMOS and Compound Semiconductor Integrated Circuits and Technology Symposium (BCICTS) BiCMOS and Compound Semiconductor Integrated Circuits and Technology Symposium (BCICTS), 2023 IEEE. :187-190 Oct, 2023
Subject
Components, Circuits, Devices and Systems
Engineered Materials, Dielectrics and Plasmas
Fields, Waves and Electromagnetics
General Topics for Engineers
Photonics and Electrooptics
Power, Energy and Industry Applications
Performance evaluation
Resistance
Satellites
Ion implantation
Low earth orbit satellites
Receivers
Production
HBT
SiGe
LEO satellite
Noise Figure
LNA
Ku-Ka bands
Language
ISSN
2831-4999
Abstract
This paper discusses technological choices and resulting performances of an innovative Si/SiGe HBT architecture developed for a new 55-nm BiCMOS platform from STMicroelectronics targeting LEO satellites user terminals application in Ku-Ka bands. Transistor architecture has been designed to combine a low-noise performance with a cost-effective technology (for high-volume production), that are two major requirements for LEO satellite user terminals. Collector integration is widely simplified compared to previous BiCMOS technologies developed by STMicroelectronics taking advantage of ion implantation capabilities. Low-noise performance is addressed by a new generation of emitter-base architecture featuring an epitaxial base link, reducing the base resistance. Record noise performances are demonstrated with $NF_{\text{MIN}}\sim$ 0.6-dB at 20 GHz at device level and 1.13-dB at 11.85 GHz at circuit (packaged receiver) level associated to a gain of ~28dB. SiGe HBT also features −390 GHZ $f_\mathrm{T}$ and −500-GHz $f_\text{MAX}$