A Compact Broadband Differential 20-120 GHz Amplifier in a 130-nm SiGe BiCMOS Technology

In this paper the design and measurement of a compact broadband differential amplifier are presented. The amplifier is based on an optimized single-stage cascode topology and is highly compact with an active chip area of around 0.02mm<sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sup>. The circuit consumes 53mW of DC power from a single 3 V supply. The amplifier is fabricated in a 130-nm SiGe BiCMOS HBT technology with f<inf xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">T</inf>/f<inf xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">max</inf> of 350/450GHz and achieves a small-signal gain of 10dB and a group delay variation of ±2ps in the targeted frequency range of 20-120GHz. Large signal measurements show a fairly constant output 1-dB compression point of around 2dBm.