Title
A 58-dBm S-band limiter in standard 0.25-μm BiCMOS technology
Author
van Wanum, M.
van Vliet, F.E.
Publication year
2013
Abstract
A series of limiters have been developed for power levels up to 58 dBm in a standard 0.25-μm BiCMOS process. After a thorough analysis of general design tradeoffs, a figure-of-merit (FOM) for limiter technologies is introduced. This FOM indicates the necessity of a high current-to-capacitance ratio, which is obtained by exploiting the base-collector junction. Two designs were implemented for operation up to S- and X-band with optimized power capability for the respective frequency bands. The proposed designs avoid dedicated technologies like PIN-diodes or gas discharge tubes and thus enable integration of the limiter in a receiver front-end chip. The limiters have been designed based on a diode model, which was carefully extracted from measurements on a single diode cell. Reliability aspects, specific to limiters, are discussed. The measurements on the S-band limiter showed that 58 dBm pulses with 10-μs length can be handled, which is similar to power levels obtained by commercial PIN diode limiters. © 1963-2012 IEEE.
Subject
Physics & Electronics
RT - Radar Technology
TS - Technical Sciences
Defence Research
Defence
Defence, Safety and Security
BiCMOS integrated circuits
microwave circuits
microwave limiters
To reference this document use:
http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:c42d37b2-f17c-4882-9e88-66caec5275e0
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1109/tmtt.2013.2271835
TNO identifier
478198
Source
IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques, 61 (8), 3034-3042
Document type
article