W- And G-Band GaN Voltage-Controlled Oscillators with High Output Power and High Efficiency

Dongkyo Kim; Sanggeun Jeon

doi:10.1109/TMTT.2021.3092362

W- And G-Band GaN Voltage-Controlled Oscillators with High Output Power and High Efficiency

Dongkyo Kim, Sanggeun Jeon

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

17 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

This article presents W- and G-band voltage-controlled oscillators (VCOs) fabricated in a 60 nm GaN high electron-mobility transistor (HEMT) process with $f_{T}/f_{\mathrm {MAX}}$ of 190/250 GHz. Two W-band fundamental VCOs (VCO1 and VCO2) are designed without and with a varactor, respectively. In addition, a G-band push-push VCO (VCO3) is designed to demonstrate feasibility of a GaN power source in the sub-terahertz band. The measurement shows that VCO1 and VCO2 exhibit output power of 22.5 and 22.6 dBm and dc-to-RF efficiency of 14.7% and 16.8% at 87.5 and 86.5 GHz, respectively. The power and efficiency are the highest values among the previously reported GaN VCOs operating beyond 50 GHz. Furthermore, VCO2 achieves a wide tuning range of 9.0 GHz (77.5-86.5 GHz). The VCO3 exhibits high output power of 9.3 dBm at 180.6 GHz. To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first demonstration of a G-band VCO in a GaN technology. The W- and G-band VCOs occupy compact chip areas of 0.48 and 0.32 mm2, respectively.

Original language	English
Article number	9478059
Pages (from-to)	3908-3916
Number of pages	9
Journal	IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques
Volume	69
Issue number	8
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1109/TMTT.2021.3092362
Publication status	Published - 2021 Aug

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
Manuscript received January 27, 2021; revised March 24, 2021 and May 3, 2021; accepted May 13, 2021. Date of publication July 8, 2021; date of current version August 5, 2021. This work was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grant funded by the Korea Government (MSIT) under Grant 2021R1A2C2009528. (Corresponding author: Sanggeun Jeon.) Dongkyo Kim was with the School of Electrical Engineering, Korea University, Seoul 02841, South Korea. He is now with Samsung Electronics, Suwon 16677, South Korea.

Publisher Copyright:
© 1963-2012 IEEE.

Keywords

G-band
W-band
gallium nitride (GaN)
high efficiency
high power
microwave monolithic integrated circuits
voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO)

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Radiation
Condensed Matter Physics
Electrical and Electronic Engineering

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10.1109/TMTT.2021.3092362

Cite this

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title = "W- And G-Band GaN Voltage-Controlled Oscillators with High Output Power and High Efficiency",

abstract = "This article presents W- and G-band voltage-controlled oscillators (VCOs) fabricated in a 60 nm GaN high electron-mobility transistor (HEMT) process with $f_{T}/f_{\mathrm {MAX}}$ of 190/250 GHz. Two W-band fundamental VCOs (VCO1 and VCO2) are designed without and with a varactor, respectively. In addition, a G-band push-push VCO (VCO3) is designed to demonstrate feasibility of a GaN power source in the sub-terahertz band. The measurement shows that VCO1 and VCO2 exhibit output power of 22.5 and 22.6 dBm and dc-to-RF efficiency of 14.7% and 16.8% at 87.5 and 86.5 GHz, respectively. The power and efficiency are the highest values among the previously reported GaN VCOs operating beyond 50 GHz. Furthermore, VCO2 achieves a wide tuning range of 9.0 GHz (77.5-86.5 GHz). The VCO3 exhibits high output power of 9.3 dBm at 180.6 GHz. To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first demonstration of a G-band VCO in a GaN technology. The W- and G-band VCOs occupy compact chip areas of 0.48 and 0.32 mm2, respectively. ",

keywords = "G-band, W-band, gallium nitride (GaN), high efficiency, high power, microwave monolithic integrated circuits, voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO)",

author = "Dongkyo Kim and Sanggeun Jeon",

note = "Funding Information: Manuscript received January 27, 2021; revised March 24, 2021 and May 3, 2021; accepted May 13, 2021. Date of publication July 8, 2021; date of current version August 5, 2021. This work was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grant funded by the Korea Government (MSIT) under Grant 2021R1A2C2009528. (Corresponding author: Sanggeun Jeon.) Dongkyo Kim was with the School of Electrical Engineering, Korea University, Seoul 02841, South Korea. He is now with Samsung Electronics, Suwon 16677, South Korea. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 1963-2012 IEEE.",

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T1 - W- And G-Band GaN Voltage-Controlled Oscillators with High Output Power and High Efficiency

AU - Kim, Dongkyo

AU - Jeon, Sanggeun

N1 - Funding Information: Manuscript received January 27, 2021; revised March 24, 2021 and May 3, 2021; accepted May 13, 2021. Date of publication July 8, 2021; date of current version August 5, 2021. This work was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grant funded by the Korea Government (MSIT) under Grant 2021R1A2C2009528. (Corresponding author: Sanggeun Jeon.) Dongkyo Kim was with the School of Electrical Engineering, Korea University, Seoul 02841, South Korea. He is now with Samsung Electronics, Suwon 16677, South Korea. Publisher Copyright: © 1963-2012 IEEE.

PY - 2021/8

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N2 - This article presents W- and G-band voltage-controlled oscillators (VCOs) fabricated in a 60 nm GaN high electron-mobility transistor (HEMT) process with $f_{T}/f_{\mathrm {MAX}}$ of 190/250 GHz. Two W-band fundamental VCOs (VCO1 and VCO2) are designed without and with a varactor, respectively. In addition, a G-band push-push VCO (VCO3) is designed to demonstrate feasibility of a GaN power source in the sub-terahertz band. The measurement shows that VCO1 and VCO2 exhibit output power of 22.5 and 22.6 dBm and dc-to-RF efficiency of 14.7% and 16.8% at 87.5 and 86.5 GHz, respectively. The power and efficiency are the highest values among the previously reported GaN VCOs operating beyond 50 GHz. Furthermore, VCO2 achieves a wide tuning range of 9.0 GHz (77.5-86.5 GHz). The VCO3 exhibits high output power of 9.3 dBm at 180.6 GHz. To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first demonstration of a G-band VCO in a GaN technology. The W- and G-band VCOs occupy compact chip areas of 0.48 and 0.32 mm2, respectively.

AB - This article presents W- and G-band voltage-controlled oscillators (VCOs) fabricated in a 60 nm GaN high electron-mobility transistor (HEMT) process with $f_{T}/f_{\mathrm {MAX}}$ of 190/250 GHz. Two W-band fundamental VCOs (VCO1 and VCO2) are designed without and with a varactor, respectively. In addition, a G-band push-push VCO (VCO3) is designed to demonstrate feasibility of a GaN power source in the sub-terahertz band. The measurement shows that VCO1 and VCO2 exhibit output power of 22.5 and 22.6 dBm and dc-to-RF efficiency of 14.7% and 16.8% at 87.5 and 86.5 GHz, respectively. The power and efficiency are the highest values among the previously reported GaN VCOs operating beyond 50 GHz. Furthermore, VCO2 achieves a wide tuning range of 9.0 GHz (77.5-86.5 GHz). The VCO3 exhibits high output power of 9.3 dBm at 180.6 GHz. To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first demonstration of a G-band VCO in a GaN technology. The W- and G-band VCOs occupy compact chip areas of 0.48 and 0.32 mm2, respectively.

KW - G-band

KW - W-band

KW - gallium nitride (GaN)

KW - high efficiency

KW - high power

KW - microwave monolithic integrated circuits

KW - voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO)

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SP - 3908

EP - 3916

JO - IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques

JF - IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques

IS - 8

M1 - 9478059

ER -

W- And G-Band GaN Voltage-Controlled Oscillators with High Output Power and High Efficiency

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

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