D-Band and Terahertz Frontends for 6G Wireless Communications in SiGe BiCMOS Technologies

This invited paper presents an overview of recent developments in the field of integrated wireless communications frontends based on silicon-germanium bipolar complementary metal oxide semiconductor (SiGe BiCMOS) technologies. Focus is set on the frequency ranges from the D-band well into the terahertz (THz) regime and a variety of integrated circuit solutions are presented. The paper starts with a review of historic developments of circuits for 60-GHz WPAN and E/W-band point-to-point links. In the following, bidirectional transmit/receive modules covering the whole D-band including related frequency multiplier chains for up/down-conversion are presented. Furthermore, transmit/receive chipsets with integrated antennas for wireless THz short-range communications around 240 GHz with a record broadband power amplifier are discussed.