14 Gbps on-off keying modulator and demodulator for D-band communication

An on-off keying (OOK) modulator and demodulator operating at carrier frequency from 100 GHz to 150 GHz are designed and manufactured in a 0.25 μm InP DHBT Technology. The modulator is based on a switch controlled frequency quadrupler, which is driven by input data and a sinusoid signal source. A power detector consisting of a 4-way power divider and four identical active power detector units is proposed as an OOK demodulator. Combining the output of the detector units enables reducing of the ripple at the output by suppressing the 1^st, the 2^nd, and the 3^rd harmonics due to the phase cancellation. The modulator and demodulator are characterized by on-wafer measurements. As an integrated OOK modulator and demodulator, high data rate transmission up to 14 Gbps is demonstrated. At data rate of 13 Gbps, BER<;10^-12 and BER<;1.7×10^-5 for 2^-7-1 PRBS at the carrier frequency 120 GHz and 150 GHz are obtained, respectively. In addition, the modulator and demodulator achieve state-of-the-art power/energy efficiency. The frequency quadrupler has the highest power efficiency of 10% among published quadruplers. The proposed demodulator also exhibits the lowest energy/bit of 1.1 pJ/bit. Total DC power consumption of the modulator and demodulator is 62 mW.