A Direct Carrier I/Q Modulator for High-Speed Communication at D-Band Using 130 nm SiGe BiCMOS Technology

This paper presents a 110-170 GHz direct conversion I/Q modulator realized in 130 nm SiGe BiCMOS technology with ft/fmax values of 250 GHz/ 370 GHz. The design is based on double-balanced Gilbert mixer cells with on-chip quadrature LO phase shifter and RF balun. In single-sideband operation, the modulator exhibits up to 9.5 dB conversion gain and has measured 3 dB IF bandwidth of 12 GHz. The measured image rejection ratio and LO to RF isolation are as high as 20 dB and 31 dB respectively. Meas-ured input P1dB is -17 dBm at 127 GHz output. The DC power con-sumption is 53 mW. The active chip area is 620 μm× 480 μm in-cluding the RF and LO baluns. The circuit is capable of transmit-ting more than 12 Gbit/s QPSK signal

A Fully integrated D-band Direct-Conversion I/Q Transmitter and Receiver Chipset in SiGe BiCMOS Technology

This paper presents design and characterization of single-chip 110-170 GHz (D-band) direct conversion in-phase/quadrature-phase (I/Q) transmitter and receiver monolithic microwave integrated circuits (MMICs), realized in a 130 nm SiGe BiCMOS process with ft/fmax of 250 GHz/370 GHz. The chipset is suitable for low power wideband communication and can be used in both homodyne and heterodyne architectures. The Transmitter chip consists of a six-stage power amplifier, an I/Q modulator, and a LO multiplier chain. The LO multiplier chain consists of frequency sixtupler followed by a two-stage amplifier. It exhibits a single sideband conversion gain of 23 dB and saturated output power of 0 dBm. The 3 dB RF bandwidth is 31 GHz from 114 to 145 GHz. The receiver includes a low noise amplifier, I/Q demodulator and x6 multiplier chain at the LO port. The receiver provides a conversion gain of 27 dB and has a noise figure of 10 dB. It has 3 dB RF bandwidth of 28 GHz from 112-140 GHz. The transmitter and receiver have dc power consumption of 240 mW and 280 mW, respectively. The chip area of each transmitter and receiver circuit is 1.4 mm x 1.1 mm

A G-Band (140-220 GHz) planar stubbed branch-line balun in BCB technology

A G-Band planar stubbed branch-line balun isdesigned and fabricated in 3μm thick BCB technology. Thistopology of the balun does not need thru-substrate via hole orthin-film resistor which makes it extremely suitable for realizationon single-layer high-resistivity substrates commonly used atmillimeter-wave or post-processed BCB layers on top of standardsemi-insulating wafers. The design is simulated and validated bymeasurements. Measurement results on two fabricated back-tobackbaluns show better than 10 dB input and output return lossand 3.2 dB insertion loss from 140 to 220 GHz

Design and Characterization of D-band Monolithic Direct Carrier Modulator and Demodulator Circuits for High Speed Wireless Communication

Millimeter waves are finding increasing applications in data communication, sensing,imaging and radio astronomy. One application is in high-speed wireless back-haul networksfor mobile communication. The operators are interested in replacing optical fiber withthe more flexible and easy to deploy wireless link. This substitute should provide thehigh capacity which is inevitable for the next generations of mobile standards and also belightweight and low power to be practical. These requirements together with the expectedhigh market volume of the point-to-point links mandates implementation of the radio front-end on a single semiconductor chipset. This thesis discusses how the direct carrier conversiongreatly simplifies the radio front-end and therefore is an attractive alternative for single-chipintegrated radio implementation at millimeter-wave.For demonstration, design and characterization of two monolithic direct carrier quadrature modulator and demodulator circuits operating at 110 GHz to 170 GHz will be presented. The circuits are fabricated in 250 nm InP Double Heterojunction Bipolar Transistor(DHBT) technology with ft/fmax of 350/600 GHz and have all the active and passive components integrated into them in a compact size.The modulator has a measured conversion gain of 6 dB with more than 22 dB and 27dB suppression of sideband and LO tones, respectively at the output. It can provide up to 3dBm of RF power and has an output third order intercept point of 4 dBm while consuming78.5 mW dc power. The demodulator circuit has 14 dB of conversion gain, more than 25 dBof image rejection and saturated output power of 4 dBm. The RF bandwidth is from 110GHz to 170 GHz and has SSB noise figure of 11.5 dB over the LO frequency from 110 GHzto 170 GHz. It consumes 74 mW of DC power. All measurements of both the convertersare done at 0 dBm of LO power. The active chip area of each converter including RF andLO balun is 560 μm_ 440 μm

Millimeter-wave Transceiver ICs for Ultrahigh Data Rate Communications Using Advanced III-V and Silicon Technologies

Today’s main driving parameter for radio transceiver research is the ability to provide high capacity while maintaining low cost, small form factor, and low power consumption. Direct conversion architectures (due to the feasibility of monolithic integration) at millimeter-wave (due to wideband availability) have attracted large interest in recent years because of their potential to meet these demands. The communication system operating at frequencies above 100 GHz enabling 10-100 Gbit/s wireless communication in various applications ranging from personal area networks for portable electronic devices, 4G and 5G mobile communication infrastructure, high data rate backhaul, real-time transmission of high-definition videos, short range chip to chip communication (wireless in a box), long-range high-speed communication (using phased arrays), and >40 Gbit/s transmission over dielectric waveguide is of interest in this thesis. However, it is a challenge to design and implement millimeter-wave transceivers that can utilize such wideband effectively for the high data transmission. This thesis addresses the design challenges and implementation at the individual circuit building blocks of the RF front-end as well as system level considerations for the realization of a fully integrated monolithic microwave integrated (MMICs) transmitter (TX) and receiver (RX) circuits at 110-170 GHz (D-band) in III-V 250 nm indium phosphide double heterojunction bipolar transistor (InP DHBT) and commercial 130 nm SiGe BiCMOS technologies. The research described in this thesis is focused on the design and characterization of a direct conversion in-phase/quadrature-phase (I/Q) modulator and demodulator, frequency multiplier circuits and integration of fully integrated transceiver chipsets demonstrating the highest RF and IF bandwidths at this frequency to date. The TX/RX chipset consists of an X3 LO frequency multiplier integrated with an I/Q modulator/demodulator and a low-noise amplifier (LNA)/power amplifier (PA). This integration allows us to design the oscillator at one third of the fundamental D-band LO frequency. The chosen design simplifies the packaging of the TX/RX chips and hence reduces the cost and power consumption. A 110–170 GHz RF amplifier is used to improve the noise figure of the RX chip and to increase the gain and transmitted power for the TX chip. The chipset is multifunctional and can be used in both homodyne and heterodyne architectures supporting high data rate transmission using wide modulation bandwidth and spectral-efficient modulation formats. For QPSK and 64 QAM modulation schemes, the measured data-rates using this chipset are 48 Gbit/s in homodyne mode and 18 Gbit/s in heterodyne mode, respectively. At the time of writing this thesis, this is the highest data-rate reported in the literature for fully integrated wireless systems in the D-band. The main interest of the work is in real time wireless data traffic transmission on designed TX/RX chipsets. Therefore, the TX/RX front-end circuitry is mounted in compact split-block waveguide modules in a collaborative teamwork. The D-band TX/RX front-end modules were integrated into radio units demonstrating successfully a real time error-free wireless data transmission with 5.3 Gbit/s using 64 QAM modulation over a 1 GHz channel with spectrum efficiency of 5 bit/s/Hz. The work from this thesis demonstrates the world’s first fully functional spectrum efficient link at frequencies greater than 100 GHz

Design and Characterization of D-band Monolithic Direct Carrier Modulator and Demodulator Circuits for High Speed Wireless Communication

Millimeter waves are finding increasing applications in data communication, sensing,imaging and radio astronomy. One application is in high-speed wireless back-haul networksfor mobile communication. The operators are interested in replacing optical fiber withthe more flexible and easy to deploy wireless link. This substitute should provide thehigh capacity which is inevitable for the next generations of mobile standards and also belightweight and low power to be practical. These requirements together with the expectedhigh market volume of the point-to-point links mandates implementation of the radio front-end on a single semiconductor chipset. This thesis discusses how the direct carrier conversiongreatly simplifies the radio front-end and therefore is an attractive alternative for single-chipintegrated radio implementation at millimeter-wave.For demonstration, design and characterization of two monolithic direct carrier quadrature modulator and demodulator circuits operating at 110 GHz to 170 GHz will be presented. The circuits are fabricated in 250 nm InP Double Heterojunction Bipolar Transistor(DHBT) technology with ft/fmax of 350/600 GHz and have all the active and passive components integrated into them in a compact size.The modulator has a measured conversion gain of 6 dB with more than 22 dB and 27dB suppression of sideband and LO tones, respectively at the output. It can provide up to 3dBm of RF power and has an output third order intercept point of 4 dBm while consuming78.5 mW dc power. The demodulator circuit has 14 dB of conversion gain, more than 25 dBof image rejection and saturated output power of 4 dBm. The RF bandwidth is from 110GHz to 170 GHz and has SSB noise figure of 11.5 dB over the LO frequency from 110 GHzto 170 GHz. It consumes 74 mW of DC power. All measurements of both the convertersare done at 0 dBm of LO power. The active chip area of each converter including RF andLO balun is 560 μm_ 440 μm

A G-Band (140-220 GHz) planar stubbed branch-line balun in BCB technology

A G-Band planar stubbed branch-line balun isdesigned and fabricated in 3μm thick BCB technology. Thistopology of the balun does not need thru-substrate via hole orthin-film resistor which makes it extremely suitable for realizationon single-layer high-resistivity substrates commonly used atmillimeter-wave or post-processed BCB layers on top of standardsemi-insulating wafers. The design is simulated and validated bymeasurements. Measurement results on two fabricated back-tobackbaluns show better than 10 dB input and output return lossand 3.2 dB insertion loss from 140 to 220 GHz

Fully Integrated D-Band Direct Carrier Quadrature (I/Q) Modulator and Demodulator Circuits in InP DHBT Technology

This paper presents design and characterization of D-band (110-170 GHz) monolithic microwave integrated quadrature up-and down-converting mixer circuits with on-chip RF and local oscillator (LO) baluns. The circuits are fabricated in 250-nm indium-phosphide double heterojunction bipolar transistor technology. The mixers require an external LO signal and can be used as direct carrier quadrature modulator and demodulator to implement higher order quadrature amplitude modulation formats. The up-converter has a single-sideband (SSB) conversion gain of 6 dB with image and LO suppression of 32 and 27 dBc, respectively. The chip can provide maximum output RF power of 2.5 dBm, a third-order output intercept point of 4 dBm, and consumes 78-mW dc power. The down-converter exhibits 14-dB SSB conversion gain with 25-dB image rejection ratio, and 11.5-dB SSB noise figure. The chip consumes 74-mW dc power and can deliver maximum output IF power of 4 dBm. Both chips have the same size with active area of 560 mu m x 440 mu m including the RF and LO baluns

A 115-155 GHz quadrature up-converting MMIC mixer in InP DHBT technology

This paper presents a millimeter-wave (mmWave)direct quadrature modulator in 0.25μm InP DHBT technology.The modulator operates over the frequency range of 115 GHz to155 GHz and is based on double balanced Gilbert mixer cells.The design is tested with a CW input signal at 1 GHz and 0 dBmLO power and exhibits up to 6 dB conversion gain and morethan 22 dB image rejection ratio. The LO signal is suppressedby more than 27 dB. The chip consumes 78 mW DC power andcan provide up to 3 dBm RF power in saturation. The activechip area is 560μm 7 440μm