A 130 GHz CMOS Active Vector-Modulation Phase Shifter

A 130 GHz active Vector-Modulation (VM) phase shifter based on 55 nm CMOS process is presented for millimeter-wave phased array radar applications. A wideband quadrature generator, there stages variable gain amplifiers and a Gilbert-based summator are exploited in the proposed phase shifter. For improving the phase resolution and accuracy of the phase shifter, multi-stage wide gain-range variable gain amplifiers, which consists of stack common-gate amplifiers and the cascode amplifier based on capacitance neutralization technology, are employed. In addition, the Digital Controlled Artificial Dielectric (DiCAD) structure are also adopted in the proposed phase shifter to cover the phase gap result by VM structure. The full-wave electromagnetic simulation results show that the average gain of the proposed phase shifter is above 1 dB at 125 to 135 GHz. The phase shifting range can cover full 360 degrees with a 5.6 degrees phase step, and the RMS phase error is less than 4 degrees at operating frequency range. The area of the phase shifter is 1100 mmx600 mm, and the power consumption is 33 mW.