title: A CMOS application-specified-integrated-circuit for 40 GHz high-electron-mobility-transistors automatic biasing.
abstract: This paper presents the design and the experimental results of a CMOS Automatic Control System (ACS) for the biasing of High-Electron-Mobility-Transistors (HEMT). The ACS is the first low-power mixed-signal Application-Specified-Integrated-Circuit (ASIC) able to automatically set and regulate the operating point of an off-chip 6 HEMT Low-Noise-Amplifiers (LNAs), hence it composes a two-chip system (the ACS+LNAs) to be used in the Large Scale Polarization Explorer (LSPE) stratospheric balloon for Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) signal observation. The hereby presented ACS ASIC provides a reliable instrumentation for gradual and very stable LNAs characterization, switching-on, and operating point (<4 mV accuracy). Moreover, it simplifies the electronic instrumentation needed for biasing the LNAs, since it replaces several off-the-shelf and digital programmable device components. The ASIC prototype has been implemented in a CMOS 0.35 μm technology (12 mm2area occupancy). It operates at 4 kHz clock frequency. The power consumption of one-channel ASIC (biasing one LNA) is 3.6 mW, whereas 30 mW are consumed by a single LNA device.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, University of Milano Bicocca, Piazza della Scienza 3, 20126 Milano, Italy.
authors.forename: M
authors.identifier: 000000030905151X
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: De Matteis
authors.affiliation: TDK_EPC, Copenhagen, Denmark.
authors.forename: M
authors.identifier: 0000000252531722
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: De Blasi
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, University of Milano Bicocca, Piazza della Scienza 3, 20126 Milano, Italy.
authors.forename: E A
authors.initials: EA
authors.lastname: Vallicelli
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, University of Milano Bicocca, Piazza della Scienza 3, 20126 Milano, Italy.
authors.forename: M
authors.identifier: 000000024495571X
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Zannoni
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, University of Milano Bicocca, Piazza della Scienza 3, 20126 Milano, Italy.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Gervasi
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, University of Milano Bicocca, Piazza della Scienza 3, 20126 Milano, Italy.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Bau
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, University of Milano Bicocca, Piazza della Scienza 3, 20126 Milano, Italy.
authors.forename: A
authors.identifier: 000000019766517X
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Passerini
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, University of Milano Bicocca, Piazza della Scienza 3, 20126 Milano, Italy.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Baschirotto