A 90nm CMOS 60GHz Radio

Abstract

CMOS-based circuits operating at mm-wave frequencies have emerged in the past few years. This paper discusses the integration of a 60GHz CMOS single-chip transmitter and a single- chip receiver using a standard 90nm CMOS technology demonstrating a reliable solution for 60GHz single-chip radio. Proper transistor layout, complete and accurate modeling and optimized parasitic extraction method enabled the robust design of the wideband super-heterodyne architecture to support the entire 57- to-66GHz band. The analog radio front-end is controlled by a serial digital interface and has been co-designed and integrated together with a high-speed digital signal processor including analog-to-digital conversion, high speed PHY signal processing such as frequency-offset compensation, phase tracking, FIR and DFE, to support both advanced OFDM and SCBT modulation scheme. The resulting single-chip solution enables data throughputs exceeding 7Gb/s (QPSK) and 15Gb/s (16QAM) for a total DC power budget of below 200mW in TDD operation. In combination with a low-cost FR4-based packaging technology, it provides a high-performance cost-effective solution for a wide range of high volume consumer electronic applications.