Ultra Low Power 60 GHz ASK SiGe Receiver with 3-6 GBPS Capabilities

This paper presents an ultra low power 60 GHz SiGe ASK receiver capable of 3-6 Gbps communications. The receiver is based on a 4-stage low-noise amplifier and an ASK detector, all in a 0.12 um SiGe transistor technology. The LNA and ASK detector were designed for wide bandwidth in order to result in a very high data rate. The LNA+Detector chip consumes 11 mW and is capable of 3-6 Gbps communications with a BER < 10^-12 for an input power of -36 dBm. At an input power of -44 dBm, the system can maintain a 3 Gbps link with a BER <10^-9. This translates to 3.3-1.6 pJ/bit for the LNA+Detector, and to our knowledge, is the state of the art. The chip was tested up to 105degC and maintained >3 Gbps with a BER <10^-12 over the entire temperature range.