Transceiver Technologies for Millimeter-Wave Beam Steering Applications

During the past years, wireless communication systems have been rapidly advancing to meet the high data-rate requirements of various emerging applications. However, the existing transceivers have typically been demonstrated using CMOS-compatible technologies that deliver a relatively low equivalent isotropic radiated power in a small unit cell. Moreover, the particular device characteristics are limiting the linear region for operation. Therefore, the main focus of this dissertation is to present and discuss new design methods for transceivers to solve these issues.
To reduce the complexity of the transceiver module for further phased-array scaling, a low-noise power amplifier design approach is designed using a 0.15-μm GaN-on-SiC high-electron mobility transistor technology (HEMT). Utilizing a traded off interstage matching topology between loss and bandwidth, the conversion loss induced by the matching network could be effectively reduced. A stacked-FET configuration was adopted to enhance the power handling of the RF switch. Further improvement on the isolation bandwidth was investigated using theoretical analysis on the intrinsic effect of the passive HEMTs.
With the successful implementation of the RF front-end circuits, transceiver modules were integrated on Rogers RO3010 substrate. The planar dual exponentially tapered slot antenna phased-array system showed a compact size with simple biasing network compared to the conventional transceiver approach. The presented T/R module was characterized with an over-the-air test at a distance of 1 m, overcoming the free space path loss of 64 dB. It also shows a high flexibility for further integration with a larger number of array systems, which is very promising for future 5G communication systems.