Wireless DVB-C transmission at 220 GHz using active single-chip receive and transmit MMICs

Wireless transmission of DVB-C television signals with up to 256-QAM modulation at an RF frequency of 220 GHz is presented. The RF frontend is employing active single-chip transmit and receive MMICs, realized in 50 nm metamorphic HEMT technology, and packaged into compact waveguide modules. Their LO signal of 10 dBm is applied at the subharmonic frequency of 110 GHz. The transmitter module achieves an output power of -3.4 to 1.3 dBm between 218 and 238 GHz, while the receiver exhibits a conversion loss of only 1 dB due to an integrated LNA stage. The measured uncorrected BER in the coherent transmission setup over a distance of 1 m is 1.7 · 10^-5 and 9.1 · 10^-4 for a 128- and 256-QAM modulation format, respectively, at an IF carrier frequency of 643 MHz.