UC San Diego

The increased demand for wireless links with higher data rates and lower latency is driven by new applications such as the Internet of Things (IoT), immersive gaming and virtual reality (VR), and artificial intelligence (AI). Unlike the sub-6 GHz frequency range, the fifth-generation (5G) new radio (NR) frequency range 2 (FR2) from 24 GHz to 48 GHz and the sixth-generation (6G) frequency range 3 (FR3) from 7 GHz to 24 GHz have a vast available spectrum which allows for higher bandwidth. The first contribution of this thesis is the development of a wideband 15-55 GHz dualbeam receive beamformer IC with ultra-low NF in SiGe BiCMOS and a 16-element dual-beam phased array module covering all 5G FR2 bands. The beamformer IC integrates eight RF beamforming channels, has an excellent noise figure of 2.9-4.2 dB at 15-50 GHz, and consumes 185 mW/channel. The phased array module comprises 16 Vivaldi antennas, 4 beamformer ICs, and two 4:1 Wilkinson combining networks. The module has a wideband response at 15-50 GHz with scanning up to ±60◦. EVM measurements are performed at a 1.2 m distance and show that the array can support 400 MHz 16/64/256 quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) signals with less than 1.6 % EVM. The array can also support data rates up to 12 Gb/s with an EVM of less than 6% using 64-QAM signals. The second contribution of this thesis is the development of an extremely linear wideband passive mixer in CMOS SOI operating in the 6G FR3 (7-20 GHz). The mixer adopts multiple linearity enhancement techniques resulting in state-of-the-art linearity performance and employs power-efficient stacked LO drivers for improved IIP3 efficiency. The mixer has a measured conversion loss of 8-11.7 dB and an IP1dB of 19.7-25.1 dBm. The measured 3rd-order input intercept point is 25.3-37 dBm.