A low-power W-band receiver MMIC for amplitude modulated wireless communication up to 24 Gbit/s

A low-power receiver MMIC for high-speed wireless communication at W-band frequencies using BASK modulation is presented. The MMIC contains a three stage LNA and a zero bias envelope detector as BASK demodulator. The envelope detector utilizes a novel approach with a branchline coupler, targeting broadband performance and improved time domain behavior accordingly. The receiver MMIC is based on a 50 nm InGaAs metamorphic HEMT technology, which also provides integrated Schottky diodes with an optimized diode layout. The receiver is covering the entire W-band for high data rates and an easy adoption of diverse carrier frequencies, likewise. The MMIC exhibits a data rate up to 24 Gbit/s at a carrier frequency of 108 GHz and consumes only 14.4mW at the most with a supply voltage of 0.6 V. This results in an efficiency of 0.6 pJ/bit for the entire receiver MMIC.