A D-band tuner for in-situ noise and power characterization in BiCMOS 55 nm

摘要

A digitally controlled, 64 states tuner, for D-band in-situ noise and power characterization is demonstrated on the STMicroelectronics BiCMOS 55 nm technology. This tuner is composed of a high impedance series transmission line loaded periodically by degenerated MOS transistors operating in OFF and ON states as variable impedance device. The circuit is using traveling-wave and distributed effects that increase its bandwidth and keep a large Smith chart coverage. The total chip area is 0.5 mm2. In the 130–170 GHz frequency band, the tuner exhibits a reflection coefficient Γtuner>0.5, a S21 between ?6 dB and ?22 dB and its linearity is higher than 8 dBm at 150 GHz.