{"id":209,"date":"2015-05-13T10:17:18","date_gmt":"2015-05-13T18:17:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ece.ucdavis.edu\/hsics\/?page_id=209"},"modified":"2015-05-13T10:17:18","modified_gmt":"2015-05-13T18:17:18","slug":"transformer-based-inter-stage-coupling-scheme-for-amplifiers","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.ece.ucdavis.edu\/hsics\/transformer-based-inter-stage-coupling-scheme-for-amplifiers\/","title":{"rendered":"Transformer based inter-stage coupling scheme for amplifiers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Background:<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Amplifiers are indispensable for systems and impose significant challenges for on-chip mm-Wave\/THz systems, including power amplifiers in the transmitter and low noise amplifiers in the receiver. High\u00a0amplifier performances are hard to achieve due to the large losses of inter-stage matching network. \u00a0The performance degradation are induced by different factors, such as circuit biasing networks, simulation inaccuracy introduced non-optimal design, on-chip crosstalk. We\u00a0have invented the transformer based inter-stage matching scheme to effectively address all the critical issues for on-chip mm-Wave\/THz amplifiers with several prominent advantages. First, it provides inherent DC blocking between stages to allow individual optimum biasing for each stage. Second, it supports flexible voltage\/current gain performance by adjusting the winding turns ratio to enable active\/passive co-optimization. Third, the natural inter-stage T matching network accomplishes impedance matching with symmetrical configurations and immunity to on-chip coupling noises with fully differential configuration. Fourth, physically spanned input and output signals benefits good isolation and compact physical design minimizes losses; Fifth, differential structure facilitates accurate performance estimation through EM simulations and design optimization. This method has been widely used by many other groups.<\/p>\n

With the invented transformer based inter-stage matching, we have demonstrated a series of high performance mm-wave CMOS amplifiers, starting from a 60 GHz power amplifier (PA) with the gain > 30 dB, a 100 GHz PA with the highest saturated output power Psat<\/sub> about 15 dBm in CMOS and a 100 GHz Low Noise Amplifier (LNA) with the best noise figure (NF) of < 8 dB in 2012, then a wideband 128-157 GHz amplifier with the power gain higher than 10 dB, to the fastest amplifier at 200 GHz with the maximum gain about 8 dB in 2012, all in CMOS technologies. We have\u00a0published 17 papers and filed 1 patent disclosure in this domain.<\/p>\n

\"Transformer\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Publication:<\/strong><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Y. Ye, B. Yu, X. Ding, X. Liu, and Q. J. Gu, \u201cHigh Energy-Efficiency High Bandwidth-Density Sub-THz Interconnect for the Last-Centimeter Chip-to-Chip Communications,\u201d IEEE International Microwave Symposium IMS2017<\/li>\n
  2. Y. Ye, B. Yu, and Q. J. Gu, \u201cA 165GHz OOK Transmitter with 10.6% Peak DC-to-RF Efficiency in 65nm Bulk CMOS,\u201d IEEE International Microwave Symposium 2016<\/li>\n
  3. Y.-T. Chang, Y. Ye, C. Domier, and Q. J. Gu, \u201cA Ultra-Wideband CMOS PA with Dummy Filling for Reliability,\u201d 2015 IEEE International Wireless Symposium<\/li>\n
  4. D. Huang, R. Wong, Q. Gu, N. Wang, T. Ku, C. Chien, and M.F. Chang, \u201cA 60GHz CMOS Differential Receiver Front-End Using On-Chip Transformer for 1.2 Volt Operation with Enhanced Gain and Linearity,\u201d IEEE Symposium on VLSI Circuits, pp. 144-145, June 2006.<\/li>\n
  5. Y.-C. Liu, Q. J. Gu, T. LaRocca, N.-Y. Wang, Y.-C. Wu, and M.-C. F. Chang, \u201cA 60 GHz High Gain Transformer-Coupled Differential Amplifier in CMOS,\u201d Asia-Pacific Microwave Conference (APMC), pp. 932-935, November 2010, Best Student Paper Award<\/strong><\/li>\n
  6. Y-C. Liu, A. Tang, N.-Y. Wang, Q. J. Gu, R. Berenguer, H.-H. Hsieh, P.-Y. Wu, C. Jou, and M.-C. F. Chang, “A V-band Self-Healing Power Amplifier with Adaptive Feedback Bias Control in 65 nm CMOS,” IEEE Radio Frequency Integrated Circuits Symposium (RFIC) 2011<\/li>\n
  7. Z. Xu, Q. J. Gu, and M.-C. F. Chang, “A 100-117GHz W-band CMOS Power Amplifier with On-Chip Adaptive Biasing,” IEEE Microwave and Wireless Components Letters, vol. 21, no. 10, pp 547-549, Oct. 2011<\/li>\n
  8. Z. Xu, Q. J. Gu, and M.-C. F. Chang, “A Three Stage, Fully Differential 128 – 157 GHz CMOS Amplifier with Wide Band Matching,” IEEE Microwave and Wireless Components Letters, vol. 21, no. 10, pp 550-552, Oct. 2011<\/li>\n
  9. J. Gu, Z. Xu, and M.-C. F. Chang, \u201cTwo-Way Current Combining W-Band Power Amplifier in 65 nm CMOS,\u201d IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques, vol. 60, no. 5, pp. 1365-1374, May 2012<\/li>\n
  10. Tang, D. Murphy, F. Hsiao, Q. J. Gu, Z. Xu, G. Virbila, Y.-H. Wang, H. Wu, L. Nan, Y.-C. Wu, and M.-C. F. Chang, \u201cA CMOS 135-150 GHz 0.4 dBm EIRP Transmitter with 5.1dB P1dB Extension Using IF Envelope Feed-Forward Gain Compensation,\u201d 2012 IEEE MTT-S International Microwave Symposium, June 2012, Honorable Mention Student Paper Award<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Background:<\/b><\/p>\n

    Amplifiers are indispensable for systems and impose significant challenges for on-chip mm-Wave\/THz systems, including power amplifiers in the transmitter and low noise amplifiers in the receiver. High\u00a0amplifier performances are hard to achieve due to the large losses of inter-stage matching network. \u00a0The performance degradation are induced by different factors, \u2026 Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-209","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ece.ucdavis.edu\/hsics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/209","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ece.ucdavis.edu\/hsics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ece.ucdavis.edu\/hsics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ece.ucdavis.edu\/hsics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ece.ucdavis.edu\/hsics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=209"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ece.ucdavis.edu\/hsics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/209\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ece.ucdavis.edu\/hsics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}