A D-Band Passive Receiver with 10 dB Noise Figure for In-situ Noise Characterization in BiCMOS 55 nm

Simon Bouvot (1) , Thomas Quemerais , Joao Carlos Azevedo Goncalves (1) , Sylvie Lepilliet (1) , Guillaume Ducournau (1, 2) , Francois Danneville (1, 3) , Daniel Gloria

1 IEMN - Institut d’Électronique, de Microélectronique et de Nanotechnologie - UMR 8520
2 PHOTONIQUE THZ - IEMN - Photonique THz - IEMN
3 ANODE - IEMN - Advanced NanOmeter DEvices - IEMN

A millimeter-wave (mmW) frequency passive mixer for in-situ noise characterization in 110-170 GHz (Dband) is demonstrated using STMicroelectronics BiCMOS 55 nm technology. The circuit uses a gate-pumped MOS transistor with transmission lines filters, without any IF amplifier, allowing a direct noise characterization. This mixer is designed as a frequency down-converter, from D-band frequency to 1 GHz, enabling the noise power measure to fall within the baseband frequency of standard noise figure meter. In the 150 - 162 GHz band, the mixer exhibits conversion gain (CG) between -12.8 dB and -9.8 dB with a minimum noise figure (NF) of 10 dB for a 3.2 dBm LO power. The chip size is 1.1 x 0.4 mm(2) including DC/RF pads.

Mots clés: D-band mixer; BiCMOS 55 nm technology; mmW; noise characterization; BiCMOS integrated circuits; MOSFET; transmission lines

Domaines: Sciences de l'ingénieur [physics]

Simon Bouvot, Thomas Quemerais, Joao Carlos Azevedo Goncalves, Sylvie Lepilliet, Guillaume Ducournau, et al.. A D-Band Passive Receiver with 10 dB Noise Figure for In-situ Noise Characterization in BiCMOS 55 nm. IEEE 17th Topical Meeting on Silicon Monolithic Integrated Circuits in RF Systems (SiRF), Jan 2017, Phoenix, United States. ⟨10.1109/SIRF.2017.7874385⟩. ⟨hal-03272697⟩