Silicon-Based IC-Waveguide Integration for Compact and High-Efficiency mm-Wave Spatial Power Combiners

Journal article, 2021

A novel and compact millimeter-wave spatial power combiner is developed integrating a Silicon-based integrated circuit (IC) in a metal waveguide. As an initial step towards integrating a silicon-based active IC in a waveguide, a passive back-to-back transition incorporating a 4-way spatial power splitter and combiner is realized at E-band (71–86 GHz). In contrast to existing solutions, the proposed design considers power splitting and combining using a low-loss wireless transition between the IC and the waveguide. The proposed back-to-back structure comprises an IC implemented using Institute for High Performance Microelectronics (IHP’s) 0.13μm SiGe BiCMOS technology integrated into the H-plane of a waveguide. The IC is post-processed and assembled in the waveguide prototype. The measured prototype shows a return loss better than 13 dB, an average insertion loss of 1.7 dB for a single transition, and a fractional bandwidth of 26.4 % (69–90 GHz).