Romain Pilard

A 65-nm CMOS Fully Integrated Transceiver Module for 60-GHz Wireless HD Applications

This paper presents a fully integrated 60GHz transceiver module in a 65nm CMOS technology for wireless high-definition video streaming. The CMOS chip is compatible with the WirelessHD™ standard, covers the four channels and supports 16-QAM OFDM signals including the analog baseband. The ESD-protected die (9.3mm²) is flip-chipped atop a High Temperature Cofired Ceramic (HTCC) substrate, which receives also an external PA and the emission and reception glass-substrate antennas. The module occupies an area of only 13.5×8.5mm². It consumes 454mW in receiver mode and 1.357W in transmitter mode (357mW for the transmitter and 1W for the PA).

A digitally modulated mm-Wave cartesian beamforming transmitter with quadrature spatial combining

With fast-growing demand for high-speed mobile communications and highly saturated spectral usage below 10GHz, mm-Wave frequency bands are emerging as the key playground for future high-data-rate wireless standards. Recent years have witnessed vast technology development on V-band (60GHz) Wireless Personal Area Networks (WPAN) and E-band (80GHz) point-to-point cellular backhauls. However, existing integrated CMOS mm-Wave solutions have relatively poor energy efficiency, especially for the transmitter (TX). This is mainly due to the use of traditional Class-A Power Amplifiers (PAs) that provide good linearity but suffer from low efficiency. In addition, the efficiency of Class-A PAs drop dramatically at power back-offs, making these transmitters even less efficient when conveying non-constant envelope signals. State-of-the-art mm-Wave Class-A PAs show less than 5% efficiency at 6dB back-off [1,2].

3D printed plastic 60 GHz lens: Enabling innovative millimeter wave antenna solution and system

During the past years, various research teams developed 60 GHz chipset solutions, using both advanced CMOS [1] and BiCMOS [2] technologies. But for the 60 GHz market to flourish not only low cost RFICs are required, low cost antennas and packages are also key elements. Recently, low cost High Density Interconnect (HDI) organic technology has been evaluated [3, 4] to develop 60 GHz module using antenna-in-package approach. Measured gain is in the order of 4 dBi but there is still a need to achieve higher gain in order to increase the transmit/receive range of the system. The use of a lens is an appealing solution since it enables to customize the system performances while using existing chipset solution. In this paper, we investigate the performances achievable by a plastic (ABS-M30) lens manufactured using low cost and rapid manufacturing 3D printing technology. Material properties at 60 GHz are reviewed, a preliminary 60 GHz lens design is detailed and the full system is validated using a WiGig wireless link (demonstrating a 10 dB improvement in the link budget in comparison with the system without lens).

HDI organic technology integrating built-in antennas dedicated to 60 GHz SiP solution

During past years, various research teams have been implied in the development of 60 GHz chipset solutions, using both BiCMOS and advanced CMOS technologies. But for the 60 GHz market to flourish not only low cost RFICs are required, low cost antennas and packages are also key points. So far, HTCC technology has been seen as the chosen one when targeting millimeter wave (MMW) applications. But since 60 GHz applications are targeting large volume consumer applications, the pressure on the cost of the packaging will become higher and it is highly desirable to explore alternative lower cost solutions than HTCC. In this paper, we present 60GHz integrated antennas in an innovative low cost High Density Interconnect (HDI) organic technology demonstrating promising high-gain antenna solution (>; 7 dBi).

A 60 GHz UWB impulse radio transmitter with integrated antenna in CMOS65nm SOI technology

This work describes an UWB impulse transmitter with integrated antenna in the 60 GHz band implemented in CMOS65nm SOI technology. The transmitter aims low-power short-range high data-rate communication systems for fast-downloading applications. It consists of an oscillator that is switched on-and-off by the digital data to be transmitted and a medium power amplifier. The transmitter is fabricated on two chips: one for direct on-chip measurements and another one implementing an integrated antenna. The transmitter measurements are performed on-chip and in free space in both continuous wave and impulse operating modes. The circuit achieves an equivalent isotropic radiated power of 2 dBm at 56 GHz and a maximum measured data rate of 2.222 Gbit/sec. The overall power consumption is 28 mW under 1.2 V voltage supply.

Folded-Slot Integrated Antenna Array for Millimeter-Wave CMOS Applications on Standard HR SOI Substrate

Silicon-based technology is now able to address new applications such as Wireless HDMI. Performances of CMOS and BiCMOS transistors enable RF designers to integrate the entire front-end. The last building block of the integration is the antenna. A folded-slot antenna and 4-antenna linear array layouts on HR SOI silicon using standard CMOS process BEOL are described. In this paper, return loss and gain measurements are performed on both structures to show the interest of an array to improve the global performances of the RF chain. The measured gain is increased from -4.7 dBi (folded-slot) to -1.8 dBi (4-element array), which is compatible with a 2 meter wireless link at 60 GHz. Moreover, an antenna radiation pattern measurement setup which is at the R&D State-of-the-Art is described and exploited for extracting radiation patterns from on-silicon mmWave antennas.

1.8 dB insertion loss 200 GHz CPW band pass filter integrated in HR SOI CMOS Technology

Today, measurement of 65 nm CMOS [Dambrine, G., et al., 2005] and 130 nm-based SiGe HBTs [Chevalier, p. et al., 2004] technologies demonstrate both fT (current gain cut-off frequency) and fmax (maximum oscillation frequency) higher than 200 GHz, which are clearly comparable to advanced commercially available 100nm III-V HEMT. This increase allows new millimeter wave (MMW) applications on silicon. One of the success keys is then the passive integration. In this paper, on-chip coplanar waveguides (CPWs), which have been achieved in STMicroelectronics advanced nanometric RF CMOS High Resistivity (HR) SOI (rho > 1 kOmegaldrcm) process, and characterized up to 220 GHz are reported. Moreover, for the first time passive circuits working @ 220 GHz have been achieved and characterized demonstrating state-of-the-art performances and good agreement with electric simulations using developed models.

New Wideband Miniature Branchline Coupler on IPD Technology for Beamforming Applications

In this paper, we present a new wideband miniature branchline coupler as a key circuit to be integrated in 60-GHz packaged beamforming networks for phased-array antennas. First, the integrated passive device (IPD) technology from STMicroelectronics is investigated in the mm-wave range through the simulation, fabrication, and measurements of a microstrip line and a simple hybrid coupler. Then, a novel coupler topology with emphasis on miniaturization and broadband operation is theorized. Analytical equations are derived and a 60-GHz coupler is optimized on IPD technology. Measurement results are discussed and compared with state-of-the art publications. The whole 57-66-GHz bandwidth is efficiently covered with the three following performance: -10-dB impedance matching, ±1-dB amplitude imbalance, and ±5° phase imbalance. As an application example, the novel coupler is integrated into a 4 × 4 Butler matrix suitable for an array-antenna demonstrating stateof-the art performance in terms of insertion loss and phase error. The measurement of different samples shows low variation of the IPD process because of very good reproducibility making it a suitable candidate for circuits operating in the 60-GHz band.

60GHz antenna integrated on High Resistivity silicon technologies targeting WHDMI applications

During past years, various research team have been implied in the development of 60GHz chipset solution, using both BiCMOS or advanced CMOS technologies. But for the 60GHz market to flourish, not only low cost RFICs are required, low cost antennas and packages also are. In order to address these issues, we review in this paper achievable antenna performance using High Resistivity (HR) silicon technologies, by discussing possible integration schemes, antenna design and 3D on wafer characterization. Antenna gain of 3.9 dBi @ 60GHz has been measured making HR Si a promising technbology to address applications packaged in millimeter-wave low cost technology.

A 90GHz-carrier 30GHz-bandwidth hybrid switching transmitter with integrated antenna

There is considerable interest in wideband pulse modulation at mm-Wave frequencies for application in radar and medical imaging systems [1,2]. Accuracy and resolution in these respective systems are determined by the minimum pulse width (PW). PWs down to 300ps have previously been reported for 24/79GHz carrier frequencies [1,3]. This paper presents the design of the first pulse-based transmitter with integrated antenna to achieve sub-100ps PWs at mm-Wave frequencies in silicon. The transmitter generates variable measured PWs in the range of 35 to 376ps. To obtain this performance, hybrid PA/antenna switching has been explored in combination with high-speed digital switching circuitry.