DOI: 10.1109/TMTT.2025.3591813   IEEEXplore: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/11099050

A waveguide module for a low-noise amplifier (LNA) chip operating at D-band in 28-nm CMOS featuring a novel low-loss chip-to-waveguide transition.

110 to 170 GHz (D-band)

The substrate is back-grinded to a thickness of 37 µm to reduce the high loss associated with the silicon substrate. The back-grinded chip, which integrates on-chip dipole antennas for the transition, is mounted into a standard WR-6.5 waveguide.

Sub-terahertz communications, imaging, and sensing

2.0 ± 0.6 dB insertion loss per transition from 110 to 170 GHz 13.1 dB peak gain at 138.5 GHz, with a 3-dB bandwidth of 16.1 GHz spanning from 129.3 to 145.4 GHz. 9.3 to 10.9 dB measured noise figure (NF) from 129–135-GHz. −14.7 to −12.3 dBm input 1-dB compression point (IP1 dB) from 130 to 144 GHz.