A 71-76 and 81-86GHz, Scaled 16-Element Transceiver Phased Array with Shared Image Selection Weaver Architecture, 25% EIRP to PDC, and Low EVM Variation

TL;DR

This paper presents a compact 16-element phased array transceiver operating at E-band frequencies, utilizing a shared image selection architecture to achieve wideband coverage, high EIRP, and low EVM variation.

Contribution

It introduces a scalable Weaver image selection architecture with bidirectional shared mixers, enabling efficient beam steering and wideband operation in a compact transceiver design.

Findings

Achieved 30dBm EIRP across bands with low EVM for high-order QAM.

Implemented a 16-element transceiver in SiGe BiCMOS with 25% EIRP/PDC efficiency.

Demonstrated beam steering over +/-30 degrees with narrowband LO phase shifter.

Abstract

A 16-element, compact phased array transceiver is demonstrated at E-band (71-76 and 81-86GHz). A Weaver image selection architecture reduces the LO tuning range to 3GHz while covering the 10GHz band. The bidirectional and efficient implementation of Weaver architecture in scalable array is proposed using a bidirectional shared image selection IF mixer. The beam is steered across +/-30{\deg} with an average 30dBm EIRP across the upper and lower bands using narrowband LO phase shifter. A 1.5 GHz modulation bandwidth for 16 QAM and 64 QAM waveform is generated with EVM better than -19 dB/ -24 dB, respectively. The 2x2 transceiver die is implemented in SiGe BiCMOS and is assembled with 16-elements while operating at a 25% EIRP/PDC efficiency.