SAN DIEGO, USA: The USCD (University of California, San Diego) has joined hands with Jazz Semiconductor to develop a two-antenna quad-beam RFIC phased array receiver covering the 11-15 GHz frequency range.

Jazz is a Tower Group Company, while USCD is behind the development of microwave and millimeter-wave RFICs and mixed-signals.

According to UCSD, the array receiver will enable high-performance phased arrays for satellite communications by integrating many functions on the same silicon chip and replacing several GaAs ICs, and will drastically reduce the cost of phased array assembly.

It believes that the success in developing this first-of-a-kind chip depends on Jazz’s 0.18-micron SiGe BiCMOS process, models and design kit.

Significantly, this is the first time a single silicon chip capable of producing four simultaneous beams from two different antennas, with all the necessary CMOS controlling circuits, debuts.

Jazz has said that the chip can be connected to a single antenna with two different polarization ports. This would, in turn, permit formation of four simultaneous beams of different polarizations, which will have the same frequency, or be placed randomly at any frequency in the 11-15 GHz range.

Elaborating on the development, the chip maker said each beam will be able to operate over an instantaneous bandwidth of greater than 1 GHz with 4-bit amplitude and phase control.

The beams can point to different areas in different angles, preventing the signal gathered in beam 1 to couple to beam 2, and enables at least 30 dB isolation between the two beams.

Jazz further said the collaboration demonstrates the capabilities of the highly advanced specialty wafer processes, models and kits it offers to its customers.