Millimeter-wave true-time delay phase shifter and switch for 5G communication dual-band front-end IC

Abstract

Due to increasing data traffic, millimeter-wave 5G communication with high-speed and low-latency characteristics is being researched and invested around the world. Millimeter-wave frequency bands frequently used for 5G communication are different for each country, so multiband RF circuits are required for user equipment compatibility. Among many RF circuits, a dual-band switch and a wideband true-time delay phase shifter were proposed in this paper. RF switch should have low insertion loss for the operating path in the dual-band and high isolation for the non-operating path. In particular, the antenna switch must not lose its performance even with the high output power of the power amplifier. To resonate the off-capacitance of the transistor in the dual-band, a shared dual-band matching network is used. The measured insertion loss was less than 2.1 dB and 2.3 dB in the n258 band and n260 band, respectively, and OP1dB was measured to be more than 16 dBm and 13 dBm, respectively. A wideband differential switch and a dual-sided microstrip line type delay cell were used to design a multiband true-time delay phase shifter The delay line is designed to have a large delay time with a smaller size through an all-pass network. The simulation operating frequency is 24-40 GHz, the insertion loss is 7-10 dB, and the gain error is less than 1.4 dB.