W -Band Amplifiers With 6-dB Noise Figure and Milliwatt-Level 170-200-GHz Doublers in 45-nm CMOS

• Published in: IEEE transactions on microwave theory and techniques Vol. 60; no. 3; pp. 692 - 701
• Main Authors: Cetinoneri, B., Atesal, Y. A., Fung, A., Rebeiz, G. M.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: IEEE 01-03-2012
• Subjects: Amplifiers; CMOS; CMOS integrated circuits; Conversion; Current measurement; frequency doubler; G -band; low-noise amplifiers; Metals; Microwaves; millimeter-wave integrated circuits; Noise; Noise levels; Noise measurement; Power generation; Semiconductor devices; Transistors; Transmission line measurements; W -band
• ISSN: 0018-9480; 1557-9670
• DOI: 10.1109/TMTT.2011.2165964

This paper presents low-noise -band amplifiers and milliwatt-level 170-200-GHz output doublers in 45-nm semiconductor-on-insulator (SOI) CMOS technology. The transistors are modeled using R/C extraction and full electromagnetic modeling. The measured of a 30 1- transistor is 200-210 GHz at a bias current of 0.3-0.5 . A three-stage -band amplifier shows a record noise figure of 6.0 dB and a saturated output power of 7.5-8.0 dBm with a power-added efficiency of 9%, all at 95 GHz. The -band balanced doubler results in an output power of 1 mW at 180 GHz. A -band amplifier/ -band doubler chip is also demonstrated, with a peak output power of 0.5-1 mW at 170-195 GHz and a conversion gain from to . This paper shows that 45-nm SOI CMOS, built for digital and mixed-signal applications, results in state-of-the-art performance at - and -band.