A 28-GHz Four-Channel Beamforming Front-End IC With Dual-Vector Variable Gain Phase Shifters for 64-Element Phased Array Antenna Module

A 28-GHz fully differential four-channel beamforming front-end IC with variable gain phase shifters (VGPSs) is presented, of which orthogonal phase and gain control is achieved in a single block using the proposed dual-vector synthesis technique. This greatly reduces chip size, power consumption, and calibration complexity. The antenna switch embedded in the front-end matching network minimizes degradation of the transmitter (TX) efficiency and receiver (RX) noise figure. The multi-mode power amplifier (PA) with a built-in linearizer is presented to have high efficiency and linearity for all power modes, which reduces power consumption during gain control. Also, a differential four-way power divider and an single pole double throw (SPDT) switch are introduced in the common path, which has a small chip size and a low insertion loss. By adopting differential structures for all components in the four-channel IC, the effect of parasitic grounding inductances due to bonding and package is minimized. Thanks to the proposed dual-vector VGPS, the rms gain error of 0.21 dB and the peak phase variation of +/- 1.7 degrees are achieved during phase control and gain control, respectively, without any calibration. The four-channel frontend IC also achieves rms phase error of only 1.4 degrees during the simultaneous phase and gain control without any calibration. It has a TX OP1dB of 13.3 dBm and the highest linear output power of 7.2 dBm with 400-MHz 64-QAM fifth-generation (5G) new radio (NR) signals with 9.6-dB peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR). Also, this article presents a 64-element brick-type phased array antenna using four-channel core chips. It shows a high effective isotropic radiated power (EIRP) of 54.4 dBm at 28 GHz. An over-the-air link is demonstrated with a competitive data rate of 4 Gb/s using 64-QAM waveforms over all scan angles at a distance of 100 m.