mm-Wave CMOS design above 60 GHz

© 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Today's wireless communication systems typically operate at frequencies below 10. GHz, resulting in limited modulation bandwidth. The demand for wireless communication links of several tens of Gb/s will increase rapidly in the near future. Current wireless systems are not able to support these high data rates due to their limited bandwidth. The solution for this bandwidth problem can be found in the field of mm-Wave applications. At mm-Wave frequencies much higher bandwidths are available which in turn can support gigabit wireless systems. Other mm-Wave applications can be found in the imaging sector for medical or security purposes or in radar and guiding applications, such as car radar or airplane landing guidance. All these applications require high-performance, low-cost implementation. Thanks to the high integration level, this can be achieved in CMOS. Despite the advantages of the CMOS process, circuit design at mm-Wave frequencies is challenging. Low available gain and potential unstable behavior are the most restrictive properties. Stabilization of differential amplifiers can be achieved by introducing the capacitive neutralization technique. Gain optimization can be accomplished by applying a conjugate match to the transistors. Low loss slow-wave transmission lines and integrated transformers provide a solution for this matching problem. The mentioned design techniques were applied in the design of three fully integrated CMOS circuits: a 100-GHz transformer coupled differential amplifier in 90-nm standard CMOS, a 94-GHz differential power amplifier in 45-nm LP CMOS, and a 120-GHz 10-Gb/s phase-modulating transmitter in 65-nm LP CMOS.status: publishe