125 to 181 GHz fundamental-wave VCO chips in SiGe technology

This paper presents four signal-generation chips that comprise a fundamental-wave voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO), an output buffer, and a divide-by-32 prescaler. The VCOs with contiguous tuning ranges cover almost the full waveguide band from 110 to 170GHz (D-band). The fastest VCO operates at up to 181GHz in combination with the prescaler. The VCOs run on 1.8V, draw ~35 mA, and achieve a single-sideband phase noise ranging from -92 to -82 dBc/Hz at 1MHz offset frequency. Power consumption of the high-speed frequency divider in the first prescaler stage is 70mW. The circuits are based on an Infineon SiGe technology, which features HBTs with an f_max of 340 GHz.