A Doubler Chain with 13-dBm Output Power for 5G Millimeter-Wave Application

In this paper, a doubler chain with 13-dBm output power and 35-dBc fundamental rejection is proposed for 5G millimeter-wave application. A bandpass structure is introduced to achieve out-of-band rejection while obtaining a good matching between the doubler and the post-driver. Pre- and post-drivers are deployed in the doubler chain to reduce the power requirement of the local oscillator and obtain high output power at the second harmonic band. The test chip was fabricated in a 0.13-µm SiGe BiCMOS technology with a core size of 0.4 mm2. Measurements show that the doubler chain produces up to 13-dBm out-put power at an input power of 2 dBm. In the frequency band of 28–36 GHz, the fundamental rejection is better than 35 dBc and the third-harmonic rejection is better than 28 dBc.