DOI: 10.1109/TMTT.2025.3613831   IEEEXplore: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/11192792

56 Gb/s 4-way beamformer transmitter array IC based on LO shifting in 22 nm FD-SOI.

118-147 GHz (D-band)

The LO employs a 14-16 GHz buffer and a cascade of two triplers using an external LO reference. A tunable matching network with a 6-bit capacitor-band control in the buffer stage is combined with a polarity switch to achieve full range phase control. Efficient subharmonic I/Q generation exploits the second tripler to achieve three significant benefits: 1) no I/Q hybrid operating in D-Band; 2) an easy LC tuned buffer implementation for ±15° phase offset with limited amplitude variation; and 3) amplitude variation is removed by the 2nd tripler and LO buffers that operate at saturation level.

Beam forming for wireless communications networks in the D-band.

56 Gb/s data rate with a−17 dB rms-error vector magnitude (EVM) using 16 QAM modulation at an output power (POUT)of 3 dBm; 30 Gb/s with a −25 dB EVM using 64 QAM modulation at 2 dBm POUT. Up to 11 dBm saturated output power PSAT, 7.5 dBm output power P1db. 0.1° phase resolution and 0.2 dB output power variation across the full 360° control range. 1.17 x 0.3 mm2 chip area per transmitter; 232 mW DC power consumption per transmitter.