A 220-GHz Sliding-IF Quadrature Transmitter and Receiver Chipset for High Data Rate Communication in 0.13-µm SiGe BiCMOS

This article presents a fully integrated 220 GHz sliding-intermediate frequency (sliding-IF) quadrature transmitter (Tx) and receiver (Rx) chipset supporting high-order modulation schemes in a 0.13- $\mu \text{m}$ SiGe bipolar junction transistor and the complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor transistor (BiCMOS) technology with $f_{T}/f_{\mathrm {max}} =300/500$ GHz. For supporting the sliding-IF scheme, a 55-GHz frequency tripler, a low-loss miniature power splitter, and a 165-GHz high-efficiency frequency tripler are employed for the local oscillator (LO) generator of the transceiver (TRx). By using the sliding-IF architecture, the power consumption of the LO generator in the sub-terahertz (sub-THz) band is effectively reduced. The proposed miniature power splitter occupies a small area, which is flexible for Tx and Rx layout arrangements. In the Tx part, a 220-GHz high-gain, high-linearity power amplifier (PA) is employed to enhance the conversion gain (CG) and output power of the Tx. Two up-conversion mixers are introduced for double conversion in sliding-IF architecture. The Tx exhibits 42-GHz RF bandwidth, 38-dB CG, and 8.5-dBm saturated output power ( $P_{\mathrm {sat}}$ ). On the Rx side, a 220-GHz low noise amplifier (LNA) with a noise-reduction technique is employed to reduce the noise figure (NF) of the Rx. A double-conversion Gilbert-like topology is proposed for the down-conversion mixer which saves power consumption and reduces the NF. A baseband amplifier (BBA) follows the down-conversion mixer to improve the dynamic range. The Rx exhibits 31-GHz RF bandwidth, 48-dB CG with 25-dB gain control, and 11-dB single sideband (SSB) NF. Furthermore, on-chip slot antennas are adopted in the Tx and Rx to reduce the losses introduced by the interconnection between off-chip antennas and RF front-end devices. The antenna combined with a 20-mm radius silicon lens provides high directivity. Wireless transmission experiments demonstrate 11.2/2.4 Gbps data rates with 16-QAM/64-QAM modulation scheme over 0.2 m. The Tx and Rx consume around 640 and 495 mW, respectively.