A Zero-IF 60 GHz 65 nm CMOS Transceiver With Direct BPSK Modulation Demonstrating up to 6 Gb/s Data Rates Over a 2 m Wireless Link

Abstract

This paper presents a directly modulated, 60 GHz zero-IF transceiver architecture suitable for single-carrier, low-power, multi-gigabit wireless links in nanoscale CMOS technologies. This mm-wave front end architecture requires no upconversion of the baseband signals in the transmitter and no analog-to-digital conversion in the receiver, thus minimizing system complexity and power consumption. All circuit blocks are realized using sub-1.0 V topologies, that feature only a single high-frequency transistor between the supply and ground, and which are scalable to future 45 nm, 32 nm, and 22 nm CMOS nodes. The transceiver is fabricated in a 65 nm CMOS process with a digital back-end. It includes a receiver with 14.7 dB gain and 5.6 dB noise figure, a 60 GHz LO distribution tree, a 69 GHz static frequency divider, and a direct BPSK modulator operating over the 55-65 GHz band at data rates exceeding 6 Gb/s. With both the transmitter and the receiver turned on, the chip consumes 374 mW from 1.2 V which reduces to 232 mW for a 1.0 V supply. It occupies 1.28 times 0.81 mm <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sup> . The transceiver and its building blocks were characterized over temperature up to 85^deg C and for power supplies down to 1 V. A manufacturability study of 60 GHz radio circuits is presented with measurements of transistors, the low-noise amplifier, and the receiver on slow, typical, and fast process splits. The transceiver architecture and performance were validated in a 1-6 Gb/s 2-meter wireless transmit-receive link over the 55-64 GHz range.