A 220 GHz OOK Outphasing Transmitter in 130-nm BiCMOS Technology

This paper presents a novel 220 GHz transmitter based on on-off keying (OOK) modulation in 130 nm SiGe BiCMOS process. An outphasing architecture is explored for the first time beyond 200 GHz to enable the use of nonlinear power amplifier-multiplier chains (AMC) while supporting nonconstant envelope modulation schemes. The transmitter consists of a high speed outphasing modulator and two identical power amplifier frequency doubler chains. The modulator modulates the phase difference of two parallel signal paths between 0° and 90° through a double-pole double-throw (DPDT) switch and two fixed-value phase shifters. A -2 dBm continuous wave output power is measured at 220 GHz with a 3-dB bandwidth of 20 GHz. A data rate of 8 Gb/s is reported at a total DC power consumption of 380 mW.