0.78–1.22° RMS Phase Error, 0.14–0.32 dB RMS Gain Error, K-Band 4-Channel Phased Array Receiver IC for Satcom on the Move (SOTM)

Abstract

This brief presents a high accuracy high linearity K-band 4-channel phased array receiver for satellite communication (SATCOM). Structural improvement and parameter optimization have been carried out to enhance the phase and gain control precision. The presented receiver employs a novel $L-C$ compensation and variable resistance technique in the quadrature all-pass filter (QAF) for phase shifter (PS) to reduce the phase error. Neutralization capacitance and redundancy control bit are adopted in the attenuator (ATT) to reduce the gain error. A 3-stage low noise amplifier (LNA) has been optimized to provide high gain, high input-referred 1-dB gain compression point and low noise. The receiver achieves a 360° phase shifting range with a 6-bit resolution and a 31.5 dB attenuation range with 0.5 dB step. The measured root mean square (RMS) phase error and gain error are 0.78° – 1.22° and 0.14–0.32 dB, respectively, over the frequency of 17 GHz to 23 GHz. Each channel achieves a measured gain of 23 dB, an input-referred 1-dB gain compression point (IP1dB) of −29.8 dBm at the maximum gain, and a low noise figure (NF) of 3.4–3.9 dB. The 4-channel receiver is implemented in 40-nm CMOS process and occupies a chip area of 3.85 mm2.