On-Chip Integrated Distributed Amplifier and Antenna Systems in SiGe BiCMOS for Ultra-Large-Bandwidth Transmitters (DAAB-Tx)

DAAB项目在设计带宽超过100 GHz的超宽带集成天线和放大器接收器方面取得了广泛的成功：所有关键领域的技术水平都得到了改善。拟议的DAAB-TX项目是对DAAB的成果的补充，目的是演示第一次在100 GHz以上的带宽上进行无线传输。项目活动将围绕几种方法进行：(1)将宽带分布式功率放大器与宽带天线集成；(2)驱动以相邻频率为中心的天线阵列；(3)驱动具有分布式有源分配器的天线阵列。分布式多天线方法可以提供几个显著的优势。(A)放宽每条天线的带宽要求。(B)整个发射功率分布在整个频谱上，每个相关的放大器都可以优化为只提供其份额。(C)以最小的损耗将放大后的功率组合推到空中。关于单天线解决方案的天线设计，将重点放在超宽带天线上。宽带人工磁导体(AMC)的研究将被提出：这种替代设计消除了标准反射器的主要缺点，即由于四分之一波长的固定距离而导致带宽有限。因此，这种方法利用硅的特性来聚焦辐射能量。对于多天线方法，相邻频段的几个天线将被设计为工作在非常接近分布式放大器和有源分路器的地方，例如，分形蝴蝶结。随着多个天线集成在一块芯片上，天线单元之间以及天线与电子设备之间的耦合将成为一个非常重要的问题，这将是一个需要解决的问题。为了部分缓解这些影响，将考虑具有不同极化的天线。放大器设计工作的目标是在尽可能宽的带宽上最大化输出功率。将研究分布式拓扑，因为它们非常适合在非常宽的带宽上驱动天线，并针对最大输出功率进行了优化。在一种新的方法中，锥形行波放大器将用叠层晶体管增益单元来增强，这些单元适用于在给定最大电流下的较高输出电压。为了进一步最大化输出功率，分布式结构中的元件数量将增加，采用二维行波放大器。这两种结构将通过用天线阵列取代输出合成传输线来适应单天线和多天线解决方案。最后，通过合并两个锥形行波放大器的输入线来实现有源宽带分频器，并用来驱动以相邻频率为中心的多个天线。

Project DAAB was widely successful in the design of ultra-wideband integrated antenna and amplifier receivers over a bandwidth in excess of 100 GHz: the state of the art has been improved in all the key areas. The proposed project DAAB-Tx complements the results of DAAB towards the demonstration of the first wireless transmission over a bandwidth of more than 100 GHz. The project activities will be structured around several approaches: (1) integrate a wideband distributed power amplifier with a broadband antenna; (2) drive an array of antennas centered at adjacent frequencies; (3) drive an array of antennas with distributed active dividers. The distributed multi-antenna approaches can offer several remarkable advantages. (a) The bandwidth requirements of each antenna are relaxed. (b) The overall transmitted power is distributed across the spectrum and each associated amplifier can be optimized to deliver only its share. (c) Recombination of power after amplification is pushed to the air with minimal losses.Regarding the antenna design for single-antenna solutions, emphasis will be given to ultra-broadband antennas. The investigation of broadband artificial magnetic conductors (AMC) will be addressed: this alternative design eliminates the main disadvantage of a standard reflector, which is the limited bandwidth due to the fixed distance of a quarter of the wavelength. Therefore this approach uses the properties of the silicon to focus the radiated energy. For multi-antenna approaches, several antennas at adjacent frequency bands will be designed to work in close proximity to the distributed amplifier and active dividers, e.g. fractal bowties. With multiple antennas on a single chip, coupling between antenna elements and between antennas and electronics will become a very important issue, which will be addressed. To partly mitigate these effects, antennas with different polarization will be considered.The goal of the amplifier design work is to maximize the output power over the broadest possible bandwidth. Distributed topologies will be studied, as they are well fit to drive antennas over a very broad bandwidth, and optimized for maximum output power. In a novel approach, the tapered travelling-wave amplifier will be enhanced with stacked-transistor gain cells, which are suitable for higher-output voltage at a given maximum current. In order to further maximize the output power, the number of elements in the distributed structure will be increased with 2-dimensional travelling-wave amplifiers. Both structures will be adapted to single- and multi-antenna solutions by replacing the output synthetic transmission line with an array of antennas. Finally, active broadband dividers will be implemented by merging the input lines of two tapered travelling-wave amplifiers and used to drive multiple antennas centered at adjacent frequencies.