D-band SiGe transceiver modules based on silicon-micromachined integration

This paper reports on 130 GHz transceiver modules consisting of integrated multi-functional chipsets in a commercial 130nm SiGe BiCMOS process. The interconnect between the chipset and the package is non-galvanic and is realized in silicon micromachining technique. After successful fabrication and assembly, the individual Tx and Rx modules as well as the combined Tx-Rx link were tested using CW signals. Then realtime data transport over the link were carried out using different modulation formats and bandwidths. With 16QAM over a 750 MHz channel a 2.66 Gbit/s data rate was demonstrated with BER<10-11. These tests show that the D-band modules, obtained in a single implementation trial, work well functionally. The interconnect method is applicable to the full D-band and expected to also support frequencies in the sub-millimeter-wave range where traditional methods become challenging to apply