RF switches are an essential building block in numerous applications, including tactical radar systems, satellite communications, global positioning systems (GPS), automotive radars, wireless communications, radio astronomy, radar transceivers, and various instrumentation systems. For many of these applications the circuits have to operate reliably under extreme operating conditions, including conditions outside the domain of commercial military specifications. The objective of this thesis is to present the design procedure, simulation, and measurement results for Radio Frequency (RF) switches in 130 nm Silicon Germanium (SiGe) BiCMOS process technology. The novelty of this work lies in the proposed new topology of an ultrahigh-isolation single-pole, single-throw (SPST) and a single pole, four-throw (SP4T) nMOS based switch for multiband microwave radar systems. The analysis of cryogenic temperature effects on these circuits and devices are discussed in this work. The results shows that several key-figures-of-merits of a switch, like insertion loss, isolation, and power handling capability (P1dB) improve at cryogenic temperatures. These results are important for several applications, including space-based extreme environment application where FET based circuits would need to operate reliably across a wide-range of temperature.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:GATECH/oai:smartech.gatech.edu:1853/43694 |
| Date | 06 April 2012 |
| Creators | Cardoso, Adilson S. |
| Publisher | Georgia Institute of Technology |
| Source Sets | Georgia Tech Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Archive |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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