A 5G 25–29 GHz 64-Element Phased-Array with 49–52 dBm EIRP, Integrated Up/Down-Converter and On-Chip PLL

A 25–29 GHz phased-array with embedded filter, driver, up/down-converter and mm-wave PLL is presented. This work is based on two separate chips, a 2×2 SiGe BiCMOS beamformer chip with 14–15 dBm of output power per channel and a wideband up/down-converter with low phase noise. These chips are assembled on a carrier printed-circuit board containing high efficiency stacked-microstrip antennas, a 16:1 low-loss Wilkinson network, a high-Q filter to remove any spurious harmonics and mixing spurs from the up/down-converter, and all other supporting components such as the reference crystal oscillator, voltage regulators, SPI drivers and IF and LO connectors. The phased-array system results in a measured EIRP of 49–52 dBm at 25–29 GHz, spurious radiation of <-42 dBc as compared to P1dB-10 dB power levels, and an EVM of 5% for a 100 MBaud 64QAM waveform with a PAPR of 7.7 dB, at an EIRP of 42 dBm. This work shows the highest integration level at mm-wave frequencies to-date and small-cell units for mm-wave 5G.