Preliminary Results of a 65-nm CMOS Free-running Oscillator Emitter With Tunable Radiation from 280 GHz to 292 GHz

We report on a submillimeter-wave radiating source integrated in 65-nm CMOS technology. The source is based on a free-running differential oscillator which radiates the second harmonic of the oscillation frequency through an on-chip integrated folded-slot antenna. The chip was wire-bonded and combined with a silicon lens for backside radiation. Preliminary measurements yield tunable radiation frequency from 280.1 GHz to 291.6 GHz, with peak radiated power of -8.2 dBm for one of the measured samples. Great repeatability is observed between different samples in terms of the oscillation frequency.