An Antenna-to-Bits F-Band 120-Gbps CMOS RF-64QAM Receiver

A CMOS 100–140-GHz end-to-end receiver (RX) is presented that integrates the antenna input all the way to the bitstream output, while demodulating 64QAM/16QAM/QPSK entirely in the analog domain. A sequential asynchronous demodulation method enables 120-Gbps operation at a notably small baseband power consumption. Fabricated in a 22-nm FDSOI CMOS process, the RX achieves a peak conversion gain of 32 dB and a minimum noise figure (NF) of 9.5 dB. A wireless link measurement over a 15-cm distance demonstrates real-time demodulation of QPSK, 16QAM, and 64QAM at error vector magnitudes (EVMs) of −12, −17.5, and −17.2 dB, respectively. The RX prototype occupies a die area of <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$2.5\times 3$</tex-math> </inline-formula> mm<sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sup>, including pad ring and test structures, and consumes 230 mW of power. This work underscores the feasibility of implementing low-power, sub-THz, high-speed RXs in nanoscale CMOS.