A 314 GHz, fully-integrated SiGe transmitter and receiver with integrated antenna

We present a 314 GHz transmitter and receiver chipset which is implemented in an advanced SiGe HBT platform, and which has on-chip antennas. The transmitter uses an active antenna structure, where the generated on-chip signal is directly fed into the antenna. The receiver consists of a novel sub-harmonic resistive mixer with an on-chip high-power differential signal source feeding the LO port. A test link which directly connects the transmitter to the receiver was also implemented as a reference for characterization. This reference circuit enables a simple and accurate measurement method for conversion loss and antenna gain by omitting external high frequency signal sources. To further facilitate the characterization, the utilized on-chip signals were implemented and tested separately as well. The receiver achieves 22.5 dB conversion loss and the transmitter generates a signal power of -8 dBm at 314 GHz. On-die end-fire antennas were designed for both transmit and receive paths, and utilize a substrate etching technology to boost performance. This work demonstrates the feasibility of fully-integrated and compact sub-mmW transceiver implementations using SiGe technology.