TY - CONF AB - A passive microwave sensor based on microstrip lines for characterizing cell cultivation in aqueous compartments is presented. The proposed design methodology leads to a highly sensitive biosensor structure, which is fabricated on Rogers 3003 material. It is shown that a sufficiently high sensitivity is achieved to monitor the cultivation stadium of a yeast culture based on detection of permittivity changes. The obtained measurement results show good agreement with the performed full 3D EM simulations. According to these results the presented biosensor is capable of characterizing the stage of yeast cultivation label-free and contactless. AU - Wessel, Jan AU - Schmalz, Klaus AU - Cahill, Brian AU - Gastrock, Gunter AU - Scheytt, Christoph ID - 24403 T2 - Microwave Conference (EuMC), 2012 42nd European TI - Microwave Biosensor for Characterization of Compartments in Teflon Cappilaries ER - TY - CONF AB - Precise position is necessary for a robot to reliably localize itself and navigate in the environment. Robot position can be calculated internally or acquired from an external system. This paper presents a software architecture of a vision-based robot tracking system that can provide precise position information as well as identification of many robots. The software architecture has been designed to take into consideration the need for a flexible and scalable system that can interoperate with many similar systems and support different types of image sources, image processing, and outputs. With the architecture, future enhancements or replacements can be implemented as plug-ins, which can be easily integrated into the system. This paper also demonstrates the proposed architecture in different application scenarios AU - Tanoto, Andry AU - Li, Hanyi AU - Rückert, Ulrich AU - Sitte, Joaquin ID - 24404 T2 - In Proceedings of the IEEE International Symposium on Intelligent Control (ISIC) TI - Scalable and Flexible Vision-Based Multi-Robot Tracking System ER - TY - CONF AB - Abstract— This paper presents a fully digital transmitter architecture based on a digital polar modulator (DPM) and switch-mode power amplifier (SMPA). A simple method for comparison and estimation of different digital modulation techniques for SMPA is described. An estimation of the proposed digital polar modulator properties was done by means of a 2.1..2.2 GHz class-F power amplifier. For a CDMA signal with 9.5 dB peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR), the class-F based amplifier module driven by DPM pulse train shows more than 1 W output power and more than 10 % of drain efficiency. AU - Ostrovskyy, Philip AU - Heuermann, Holger AU - Sadeghfam, Arash AU - Scheytt, Christoph ID - 24405 T2 - Microwave Integrated Circuits Conference (EuMIC), 2012 7th European TI - Performance Estimation of Fully Digital Polar Modulation driving a 2 GHz Switch-Mode Power Amplifier ER - TY - JOUR AB - A subharmonic receiver for sensing applications in the 245 GHz ISM band has been proposed. The receiver consists of a single-ended common base LNA, a 60 GHz push-push VCO with 1/32 divider, a transconductance 4th subharmonic mixer and IF amplifier. The receiver is fabricated in fT/fmax=300/500 GHz SiGe: C BiCMOS technology. Its measured single-ended gain is 21 dB at 243 GHz with tuning range of 12 GHz, and the single- side band noise figure is 32 dB. The input 1-dB compression point is at -37 dBm. The receiver dissipates a power of 358 mW. Index Terms— SiGe technology, millimeter-wave circuits, 245 GHz, CB LNA, SHM, VCO, sub-harmonic receiver. AU - Mao, Yanfei AU - Schmalz, Klaus AU - Borngräber, Johannes AU - Scheytt, Christoph ID - 24406 IS - 99 JF - Microwave Theory and Techniques, IEEE Transactions on TI - 245-GHz subharmonic receiver in SiGe VL - PP ER - TY - JOUR AB - A tunable fourth-order bandpass ΔΣ modulator (BDSM) designed and fabricated in 0.25μm SiGe BiCMOS technology is presented. The designed modulator relaxes switching conditions for the amplification stage of the switch-mode power amplifier in comparison to the BDSM architecture. The BDSM is clocked at 5 GHz, while the notch frequency can be tuned in a range of 2.1-2.2 GHz. The modulator achieves 46.6-dB signal-to-noise and distortion ratio in 10-MHz bandwidth for a sine-wave input at 2.2 GHz consuming 330 mW from a 3-V supply. The BDSM was also tested with a single-channel WCDMA signal. It has demonstrated 42.2-dBc adjacent channel leakage ratio at 5-MHz offset and less than 2.1% error vector magnitude over the tuning range. AU - Ostrovskyy, Philip AU - Gustat, Hans AU - Ortmanns, Maurits AU - Scheytt, Christoph ID - 24407 IS - 8 JF - Microwave Theory and Techniques, IEEE Transactions on TI - A 5-Gb/s 2.1–2.2-GHz Bandpass \Delta \Sigma Modulator for Switch-Mode Power Amplifier VL - 60 ER - TY - JOUR AB - This paper presents a 60-GHz SiGe PA with a 29.2% power-added efficiency (PAE), a peak power of 16.8 dBm, and a peak output 1-dB compression (OP 1dB ) of 14 dBm. Its measured gain is 13.5 dB at 60 GHz with a corresponding 3-dB bandwidth of 47-74 GHz. The PAE is above 25% with a supply voltage from 2.2 to 4 V. A cascode stage has been analyzed and used as the amplifier core. The high PAE is achieved by pushing the upper transistor of the cascode stage to weak avalanche area and correct transistor sizing. The linearity is achieved by optimizing the input matching and emitter degeneration. Safe operation conditions of heterojunction bipolar transistors at dc and high frequencies have been investigated at weak avalanche area. A safe operation boundary for high frequencies is given based on our experimental results and analytical derivations. Large-signal stress tests have shown there is no performance degradation and have proved the validity of this safe operation boundary. AU - Sun, Yaoming AU - Fischer, Gerhard G. AU - Scheytt, Christoph ID - 24408 IS - 8 JF - Microwave Theory and Techniques, IEEE Transactions on TI - A Compact Linear 60-GHz PA With 29.2% PAE Operating at Weak Avalanche VL - 60 ER - TY - JOUR AB - We propose a new circuit for the realization of transimpedance amplifiers (TIAs), targeted at reducing the input-referred noise of the TIA or alternatively increasing the bandwidth, without increasing the power dissipation. An intensive theoretical analysis of the method is given. A prototype chip is fabricated in 0.25- μm SiGe BiCMOS technology. The TIA has a gain of 71 dBΩ , a bandwidth of 20.5 GHz, and an average input-referred current noise density of 18 pA/√Hz . The circuit operates from a 2.5-V supply, and power dissipation is 57 mW. AU - Sedighi, Behnam AU - Scheytt, Christoph ID - 24409 IS - 8 JF - (Refa) FB/IE Zeitschrift für Unternehmensentwicklung und Industrial Engineering TI - Low-Power SiGe BiCMOS Transimpedance Amplifier for 25-GBaud Optical Links VL - 59 ER - TY - CONF AB - This paper reviews recent results of wireless transmitter and receiver ICs at 122 and 245 GHz in 0.13 µm SiGe BiCMOS technology together with an efficient on-chip antenna. A transmitter IC with 5 dBm output power and directional onchip power measurement for built-in-self-test is presented. A 122 GHz passive HBT diode mixer design is discussed and results are shown. The mixer exhibits superior 1/f noise performance which makes it especially suitable for FMCW/CW radar sensors. Furthermore a highly integrated 245 GHz transmitter with 1 dBm maximum output power was realized. The IC dissipates only 380 mW. A low-loss on-chip antenna for 130 GHz with 60% efficiency was implemented and measured. It uses localized backside etching techniques and allows for simplified and very cost-efficient mm-wave packaging AU - Scheytt, Christoph AU - Sun, Yaoming AU - Schmalz, Klaus AU - Wang, Ruoyu ID - 24410 T2 - IMS 2012 (International Microwave Symposium) TI - SiGe BiCMOS Transceivers, Antennas, and Ultra-Low-Cost Packaging for the ISM Bands at 122 and 245 GHz ER - TY - CONF AB - A 245 GHz transmitter for sensing applications has been realized, which consists of a push-push VCO with 1/64 frequency divider, a transformer- coupled one-stage power amplifier, and a frequency doubler. It is fabricated in 0.13μm SiGe:C BiCMOS technology with f T /f max of 300GHz/500GHz. The peak output power of the transmitter is 2 dBm. The 3-dB bandwidth reaches from 229 GHz to 251 GHz. The output power is 1 dBm at 245 GHz. The transmitter dissipates 0.29 W. Additionally, a test-circuit with an integrated two-stage power amplifier and a frequency doubler is presented, which reaches 1.4 dBm at 245 GHz and dissipates 0.19 W. AU - Schmalz, Klaus AU - Borngräber, Johannes AU - Heinemann, Bernd AU - Rücker, Holger AU - Scheytt, Christoph ID - 24411 T2 - Radio Frequency Integrated Circuits Symposium (RFIC), 2012 IEEE TI - A 245 GHz transmitter in SiGe technology ER - TY - CONF AB - In this publication an integrated dielectric sensor with read-out circuit in SiGe BiCMOS technology at 125GHz is presented. The sensor consist of a 500 µm shorted half-wave coplanar waveguide transmission line in the top metal layer. Read-out of the sensor is performed by measurement of its reflection coefficient with an integrated multiprobe reflectometer and signal source. The MMIC has been fabricated in a 190-GHz f T SiGe:C BiCMOS technology and assembled on a printed circuit board. Functionality of the sensor is demonstrated with a stimulus frequency from 118 to 133GHz with immersion of the sensor into a binary methanol-ethanol mixture. AU - Laemmle, Benjamin AU - Schmalz, Klaus AU - Scheytt, Christoph AU - Weigel, Robert AU - Kissinger, Dietmar ID - 24412 T2 - Microwave Symposium Digest (MTT), 2012 IEEE MTT-S International TI - An integrated 125GHz Sensor with read-out circuit for permittivity measurement of liquids ER - TY - CONF AB - In this paper, a novel fully digital modulator for a switch mode power amplifier (SMPA) is presented. The modulator converts the input baseband amplitude and phase signals into a two-level pulse train for driving an RF SMPA. The simulation results demonstrated a proof of the concept. The proposed architecture is analyzed in terms of accuracy by measuring EVM. The impact of the modulator parameters on the SMPA performance is investigated and corresponding results are shown. The modulator was simulated with a 20 MHz LTE signal. AU - Ostrovskyy, Philip AU - Scheytt, Christoph AU - Lee, SungJun AU - Park, BongHyuk AU - Jung, JaeHo ID - 24413 T2 - Proc. IEEE Int Circuits and Systems (ISCAS) Symp TI - A fully digital polar modulator for switch mode RF power amplifier ER - TY - JOUR AB - We present a novel graphene-based-device concept for a high-frequency operation: a hot-electron graphene base transistor (GBT). Simulations show that GBTs have high current on/off ratios and high current gain. Simulations and small-signal models indicate that it potentially allows terahertz operation. Based on energy-band considerations, we propose a specific material solution that is compatible with SiGe process lines. AU - Mehr, Wolfgang AU - Dabrowski, Jarek AU - Lemme, Max C. AU - Lippert, Gunther AU - Lupina, Grzegorz AU - Ostling, Mikael AU - Xie, Ya-Hong AU - Scheytt, Christoph ID - 24414 IS - 5 JF - (Refa) FB/IE Zeitschrift für Unternehmensentwicklung und Industrial Engineering TI - Vertical Graphene Base Transistor VL - 33 ER - TY - CONF AB - Millimeter-Wave (mm-W) is considered a potential technology for high-data rate wireless transmission and for high-resolution short-range radar, due to the 7-9 GHz bandwidth at the 60 GHz unlicensed band available worldwide. Developing ultrawideband architectures including multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) antenna systems at mm-W offer many advantages including jointly optimized analogue and digital signal processing at carrier frequency and baseband. This allows for flexible antenna designs and reduced losses, as many passive structures can be avoided at both sides of the link. Besides, based on flexible polarimetric approaches, the polarimetric propagation of electromagnetic waves can be exploited. In this paper we present a 60 GHz polarimetric MIMO system architecture, which includes analogue miniaturized frontends designed and manufactured by multi-layer packaging technologies. Such architecture permitted the design of compact MIMO radar and multi-dimensional channel sounding. The MIMO approach allows not only polarimetric filtering and fully polarimetric/directional signal processing to increase the signal-to-clutter-plus-noise ratio of mm-W radar systems, but also the full characterization of wireless channels including multipath with orthogonal polarizations. AU - Garcia-Ariza, Alexis-Paolo AU - Müller, Robert AU - Stephan, Ralf AU - Wollenschläger, Frank AU - Schulz, Alexander AU - Elkhouly, Mohamed AU - Scheytt, Christoph AU - Trautwein, Uwe AU - Müller, Jens AU - Thomae, Reiner AU - Hein, Matthias ID - 24415 T2 - EuCAP2012 (European Conference on Antennas and Propagation) TI - 60 GHz Polarimetric MIMO Sensing: architectures and technology ER - TY - CONF AB - This paper describes the design of D-band phased-array circuits in 0.25 μm technology. The first part describes the design of the passive components which are used in the phased-array systems such as balun, Wilkinson divider and branch-line coupler. A millimeter-wave vector-modulator is designed to support both amplitude and phase control for beam-forming applications. In the second part the designed circuits are integrated together to form a two channel 110-130 GHz phased-array chip. Each channel exhibits 360° phase control with 15 dB of amplitude control range and gain of -10 dB. The entire chip draws 45 mA from 3.3 V supply. The millimeter-wave phase shifting and the low-power consumption makes it ideal for highly integrated scalable beam-forming systems for both imaging and communication. AU - Elkhouly, Mohamed AU - Glisic, Srdjan AU - Ellinger, Frank AU - Scheytt, Christoph ID - 24416 T2 - GeMIC 2012 TI - 120 GHz phased-array circuits in 0.25 µm SiGe BiCMOS technology ER - TY - CONF AB - In recent years, subthreshold operation has become a research focus for digital systems with limited energy budget (e.g. mobile, battery-powered devices, radio frequency identification (RFID), wireless sensor networks, or biomedical applications). Subthreshold operation allows for such low power consumption by reducing the supply voltage of the circuit below the threshold voltage of the transistors. As dynamic power depends quadratically on supply voltage, and static power depends exponentially on supply voltage, considerable power savings are achieved. At the same time propagation delays increase due to reduced transistor currents. Effectively, energy consumption per cycle can typically be reduced by a factor of 10 using subthreshold operation. AU - Luetkemeier, Sven AU - Jungeblut, Thorsten AU - Porrmann, Mario AU - Rückert, Ulrich ID - 24417 T2 - Proc. IEEE Int. Solid-State Circuits Conf. Digest of Technical Papers TI - A 200mV 32b Subthreshold Processor with Adaptive Supply Voltage Control ER - TY - CONF AB - The paper presents a four stage 245 GHz LNA in an f t /f max =280/425 GHz SiGe technology and a 4 th sub harmonic 245 GHz transconductance mixer in an f t /f max =250/300 GHz SiGe technology. The LNA takes advantage of common base (CB) topology for each stage and has 12 dB gain at 245 GHz, while exhibiting a 3 dB bandwidth of 26 GHz. It has a supply voltage of 2V and power dissipation of 28 mW. The transconductance mixer has -7 dB conversion gain at 245 GHz with an LO power of 8 dBm at 61 GHz. The mixer draws 9.8 mA at 3V. Simulation results of the receiver comprising the CB LNA and SHM mixer are given. AU - Mao, Yanfei AU - Schmalz, Klaus AU - Borngräber, Johannes AU - Scheytt, Christoph ID - 24418 T2 - SiRF 2012 (Silicon Monolithic Integrated Circuits in RF Systems) TI - A 245 GHz CB LNA and SHM mixer in SiGe technology ER - TY - CONF AB - In this publication an integrated reflectometer in SiGe BiCMOS technology for sensor readout at 62 GHz is presented. The circuit includes an oscillator, a six-port reflectometer, and a dummy sensor for verification purposes. The circuit has a bandwidth of 8GHz at a center frequency of 62 GHz. It operates at 3.75V supply voltage and consumes 282 mW. The measurement principle is demonstrated and the scattering parameters of the dummy sensor are compared to measurement of a breakout circuit with a commercially available vector network analyzer. The circuit has been fabricated in a 190-GHz SiGe:C BiCMOS technology and occupies an area of 0.9 mm 2 . AU - Laemmle, Benjamin AU - Schmalz, Klaus AU - Scheytt, Christoph AU - Kissinger, Dietmar AU - Weigel, Robert ID - 24419 T2 - SiRF 2012 (Silicon Monolithic Integrated Circuits in RF Systems) TI - A 62GHz Reflectometer for Biomedical Sensor Readout in SiGe BiCMOS Technology ER - TY - CONF AU - Scheytt, Christoph AU - Debski, Wojciech AU - Sun, Yaoming AU - Wang, Ruoyu AU - Winkler, Wolfgang ID - 24420 TI - 122 GHz Radartransceiver und Komponenten in 0.13ym SiGe BiCMOS ER - TY - CONF AB - This paper presents two local navigation strategies for multi-robot systems in performing exploration of unknown environments. The strategies are based on the frontier cell for mapping the environment and navigating in it. Additionally, two coordination strategies are used to solve possible conflicts among robots. Key criteria investigated are the efficiency and effectiveness represented by the completion time, traveled distance, the total steps, and the task distribution. The developed algorithms are tested in simulations as well as in experiments with Khepera III mini robots running on the Teleworkbench. To evaluate the robustness of the developed algorithms, tests are performed under different environmental configurations and varying numbers of robots. The results show the advantages of both proposed strategies in different situations such as environment types and starting positions. AU - Tanoto, Andry AU - Rückert, Ulrich ID - 24422 T2 - From Simulation to Experimentation with Mini-Robots TI - Local Navigation Strategies for Multi-Robot Exploration VL - 41 ER - TY - CHAP AB - One challenging aspect in the development of multi-robot systems is their validation in a real environment. However, experiments with real robots are considerably tedious as experimenting is repetitive and consists of several steps: setup, execution, data logging, monitoring, and analysis. Moreover, experiments also require many resources especially in the case when involving many robots. This paper describes the role of the Teleworkbench as a platform for conducting experiments involving mini robots. The Teleworkbench offers functionality that can help users in validating their robot software from simulation to prototyping using mini robots. A traffic management system is used as a scenario for demonstrating the support of the Teleworkbench for validating multi-robot systems. AU - Tanoto, Andry AU - Werner, Felix AU - Rückert, Ulrich AU - Sitte, Joaquin ID - 24424 T2 - Advances in Autonomous Mini Robots TI - Multi-Robot System Validation: From Simulation to Prototyping with Mini Robots in the Teleworkbench ER -