A 12-GHz silicon bipolar dual-conversion receiver for digital satellite applications

A 12-GHz monolithic silicon bipolar receiver for digital video broadcasting via satellite (DVB-S) is presented. The receiver is based on a dual-conversion superheterodyne architecture that employs a single LO integrated in the same die. To comply with the stringent LO phase noise requirement of -101 dBc/Hz at 100 kHz offset from the carrier, an innovative VCO topology, based on a three-layer monolithic transformer, was used. The VCO exhibits a phase noise of -102 dBc/Hz at 100 kHz offset from a 5.3-GHz carrier and a 1.1-GHz tuning range. At 12 GHz, the conversion gain is 33.6 dB, the single-sideband noise figure is 5.9 dB and the output IP3 is + 16 dBm. This work reports the first 12-GHz DVB-S monolithic receiver integrated in a low-cost silicon bipolar technology.