A 16-Channel 3.1-25.5-GHz Phased-Array Receive Beamformer IC With Two Simultaneous Beams and 2.0-2.4-dB NF for C/X/Ku/Ka-Band SATCOM

This article presents a 3.1-25.5-GHz phased -array receive beamformer integrated circuit (BFIC) for C-, X-, Ku-, and Ka -band satellite communication (SATCOM) in a 90-nm SiGe BiCMOS process. The chip adopts the radio frequency (RF) beamforming architecture and consists of 16 channels for dualbeam operation. The measured electronic gain of each channel is 26.6 dB with a 3.1-25.5-GHz 3 -dB bandwidth, 25 -dB gain control, and 5 -bit phase resolution. The measured noise figure (NF) is <2.0 dB at the C-, X-, and Ku -bands and <2.4 dB at the Ka -band. A 16 -element wideband phased array using Vivaldi antennas is designed. The array achieves +/- 60 degrees scanning, and the broadside gain -to -noise -temperature (G/T) is between -14.6 and -12.0 dB. QPSK, 8-PSK, and 16-QAM modulated signals (up to 400 MBaud) are supported with <3% error -vector magnitudes (EVMs) at all scan angles. To the authors' knowledge, the BFIC demonstrates the widest operating bandwidth for SATCOM ground -terminal reception with a state-of-the-art NF.