SiGe BiCMOS Monolithic Microwave Integrated Circuit Design

Lecture: Dr.-Ing. Sébastien Chartier
Exercise: M.Sc. Athanasios Gatzastras

M.Sc. Electrical Engineering University of Stuttgart
M.Sc.INFOTECH (Information Technology) University of Stuttgart

• 06.11.2020
• 04.12.2020
• 15.01.2021

jeweils 08:00 – 19:00

 The lectures/exercises will be offered online live in the form of web conferences with MS Teams with the possibility of interaction between the lecturer and the students. A login for participation in the web conferences will be made available on ILIAS. In addition to the recordings all lecture material such as scripts, slides, exercises and standard solutions, as well as examples of former exams will be made available for download through ILIAS/MS Teams.

The CAD lectures will be flexible offered as remote or presence events.

This lecture provides an in-depth description of the most fundamental circuit architectures suited for silicon-based analog front-end circuit design, especially using SiGe HBT and BiCMOS technologies in modern radar applications including automotive radar. After an introduction to modern silicon-based technologies, describing typical front-end of line and back-end of line, an overview of radar applications and radar system architectures will be presented. A detailed description of silicon-based circuits used in modern microwave and millimeter-wave front-end for e.g. FMCW radar applications will then follow. Finally, the last chapter will cover various items such as assembly, packaging and testing. This lecture is intended to be an extension to the lecture Microwave Analog Frontend Design part 1 and part 2. The lecture will be organized in three one-day lectures once per month starting at the beginning of the semester. The first exercises will be based on standard classroom sessions followed by hands-on exercises using modern CAD Software in the ILH CAD room and flipped-classroom sessions. The lecturer reserves the right to alter the contents of the course without prior notification.

Part 1: Silicon-based semiconductor technologies
1. SiGe HBT / Si CMOS / SiGe BiCMOS technologies
2. Passive components (Back-end of Line)
3. Modeling
4. CAD Tools 

Part 2: Radar systems and applications
1. Radar applications
2. Brief overview of RF system architecture
3. Radar system architectures with strong focus on FMCW
4. Radar implementation using semiconductor topologies 

Part 3: SiGe HBT amplifier design
1. Narrow- and broadband amplifier circuit topologies
2. Low-Noise amplifier design
3. Power amplifier circuit architecture
4. Variage gain amplifier topologies   

Part 4: SiGe HBT Oscillators / Phased-locked loop / Synthesizers
1. PLL principle
2. Oscillator topologies
3. Frequency divider
4. Phase detector 

Part 5: Bipolar based Mixers
1. Bipolar switching principle (ECL)
2. Gilbert cell multiplier
3. Gilbert cell mixer

Part 6: Other front-end elements
1. RF switches
2. Phase shifters
3. Attenuators
4. Power detectors
5. Filters 

Part 7: Assembly, packaging and testing
1. Assembly techniques (chip&wire, SMD, wafer-level, …)
2. Packaging technologies (QFN, LCP)
3. Attenuators
4. Power detectors