Inter national J our nal of Electrical and Computer Engineering (IJECE) V ol. 8, No. 2, April 2018, pp. 933 938 ISSN: 2088-8708 933       I ns t it u t e  o f  A d v a nce d  Eng ine e r i ng  a nd  S cie nce   w     w     w       i                       l       c       m     Lo w-P o wer D-Band CMOS Amplifier f or Ultrahigh-Speed W ir eless Communications T uan Anh V u 1,2 , K y oya T akano 1 , and Minoru Fujishima 1 1 Graduate School of Adv anced Sciences of Matter , Hiroshima Uni v ersity , Japan 2 VNU Uni v ersity of Engineering and T echnology , V ietnam Article Inf o Article history: Recei v ed September 7, 2017 Re vised December 28, 2017 Accepted: Jan 29, 2018 K eyw ord: Amplifier D-Band Dif ferential Capaciti v e Neutralization Millimeter -W a v e ABSTRA CT This paper present s a lo w-po wer D-Band amplifier suitable for ultrahigh-speed wireless communications. The three-stage fully dif ferential amplifier with capaciti v e neutralization is f abricated in 40 nm CMOS pro vided by TSMC. Measurement results sho w that the D- band amplifier obtains a peak g ain of 9.6 dB o v er a -3 dB bandwidth from 138 GHz to 164.5 GHz. It e xhibi ts an output 1 dB compression point (OP1dB) of 1.5 dBm at the center frequenc y of 150 GHz. The amplifier consumes a lo w po wer of 27.3 mW from a 0.7 V supply v oltage while its core occupies a chip area of 0.06 mm 2 . Copyright c 2018 Institute of Advanced Engineering and Science . All rights r eserved. Corresponding A uthor: Name: T uan Anh V u Af filiation: VNU Uni v ersity of Engineering and T echnology Address: 144 Xuan Thuy Rd., Cau Giay Dist., Hanoi, V ietnam Phone: +84-4-3754-9338 Email: tanhvu@vnu.edu.vn 1. INTR ODUCTION According to the current trend, the frequenc y used for wireless communication will reach the terahertz band in 2020. The unallocated frequenc y re gion be yond 275 GHz with v ast bandwidth can be potentially utilized for ultrahigh-speed wireless communication. In particular , the 300 GHz band is attracti v e since propag ation decay in air around 300 GHz is relati v ely lo w . Ho we v er , since studies on terahertz wireless communication including the 300 GHz band are still in early stage when only a fe w transcei v ers operating abo v e 275 GHz were reported [1] [2]. Since the maximum operating frequenc y or the unity-po wer -g ain frequenc y , f max , of the n-type MOSFET e v en with adv anced CMOS process is belo w 300 GHz, realization of 300 GHz RF front-end is challenging. One solution is to use frequenc y multipliers. A 300 GHz CMOS RF front-end w as reported using a tripler [4]. Ho we v er , the tripler generates not only the desired RF signal b ut also the higher -order spurious. As a result, the RF signal may be distorted by a higher -order spurious. On the other hand, since quadratic nonlinearity of a MOSFET is stronger than its cubic counterpart, a doubler can generate higher output po wer than a tripler does. When the doubler is emplo yed, the 300 GHz output signal can be generated from the 150 GHz input one. In this paper , we are going to present a lo w-po wer D-band amplifier whose center frequenc y is 150 GHz. This amplifier will be used as the preceding stage of the 300 GHz doubler . 2. DESIGN OF D-B AND AMPLIFIER The D-band amplifier is designed using TSMC 40 nm 1P10M CMOS GP process. Its back end consists of 10 copper layers and a top aluminum redistrib ution layer (RDL). The cross-vie w of a grounded coplanar w a v e-guide transmission line (GCPW -TL) is depicted in Fig. 1 [5]. The GCPW -TL with the characteristic impedance of 50 (the 50 GCPW -TL) is used for connecting to the input and output pads of the D-band amplifier . Its signal line consists of the RDL layer wi th a width of 9 µm. Ground (GND) w alls composed of the 6th to 10th metal layers with a width of 2.7 µm are placed on the both side of the signal line at the distance of 7.2 µm. The GCPW -TL with the charact eristic impedance of 71 (the 71 GCPW -TL) is used for the shunt stubs of the amplifier’ s matching J ournal Homepage: http://iaescor e .com/journals/inde x.php/IJECE       I ns t it u t e  o f  A d v a nce d  Eng ine e r i ng  a nd  S cie nce   w     w     w       i                       l       c       m     DOI:  10.11591/ijece.v8i2.pp933-938 Evaluation Warning : The document was created with Spire.PDF for Python.
934 ISSN: 2088-8708 netw orks and the series stubs of the rat-race balun. The width of the t op-layer signal line is 2.9 µm, and the GND w all placed at a distance of 7.6 µm from the signal line has the width of 1.8 µm. The 3nd to 5th metal layers are meshed and stitched together with vias to form the GND plane. Figure 1. The cross-vie w of the 71 GCPW -TL. Figure 2. The proposed D-band amplifier . The complete circuit of the proposed amplifier with all component v alues are gi v en in Fig. 2. It includes in- put matching netw orks, output matching netw orks, three fully dif ferential amplifying stages and inter -stage matching netw orks. F or bandwidth enhancement, multi-stage matchings using capacitors and GCPW -TLs are adopted. The series capacitors and shunt GCPW -TLs form 4th-order high-pass filters at the inputs and outputs of the amplifier . Both the inputs and outputs are matched to 50 for measurement purpose. The inter -stage matching netw orks are based on PI netw orks for wideband performance. All of the capacitors also act as coupling capacitors while the DC bias v oltages are applied through the GCPW -TLs. The bias v oltages are common to all amplifying stages. The shunt stubs composed of the 71 GCPW -TLs are arranged re gularly with sharing GND w alls, and the space between the GCPW -TLs is 17 µm. The near -end and f ar -end crosstalk simulated by EM simulation are belo w -30 dB and -34 dB at 100 GHz and 250 GHz, respecti v ely . It indicates that the cross-coupling between stubs is ne gligible.. The connection between the MOSFETs, MOM capacitors and GCPW -TLs are made by the 8th to 10th metal layers. The lengths of the GCPW -TLs and the number of finger s of MOM capacitors are determined by a nonmetric optimization process taking into account the models of MOSFETs, MOM capacitors and GCPW -TLs. The f ar end of each shunt IJECE V ol. 8, No. 2, April 2018: 933 938 Evaluation Warning : The document was created with Spire.PDF for Python.
IJECE ISSN: 2088-8708 935 Figure 3. Amplifier core (a) and its equi v alent circuit with e xtracted parasitics (b). stub is terminated by a wideband decoupling po wer line with v ery lo w characteristic impedance (the 0 TL) [6]. The internal ne g ati v e feedback path caused by the parasitic g at e-drain capacitor , C GD limits the po wer g ain and re v erse isolation, and potentially causes instability . In order to impro v e the stabil ity without compromising the g ain of the MOSFET , the internal feedback in the transistor has to be reduced. An ele g ant technique to accomplish this is to neutralize C GD in a dif ferential pair by us ing cross coupling capacitors [7]. Fig. 3a sho ws the core of the amplifier that is a fully dif ferential pair with capaciti v e neutralization. The cross coupling capacitor whose v alue is 16.1 fF is determined to obtain high g ain. Fig. 3b re v eals the parasitics associated at each node of the amplifier core. The parasitic components are e xtract ed using bond-based design which is a measurement-based design approach to a v oiding the dif ficulty associated with layout parasitics when ordinary layout parasitic e xtraction (LPE) tools used for chip design do not e xtract inductances [8]. Multistage amplifiers for terahertz frequencies tend to occup y a lar ge area since inter -stage matching netw orks consist typically of se v eral passi v e de vices that are much lar ge than MOSFETs. T o realize cost-ef fecti v e chips, area reduction is important. In order to reduce the area of the amplifier , we proposed the ”fishbone layout” [9]. In this technique, GCPW -TL stubs used in matching netw orks are arranged re gularly at narro w spacings, and the GCPW -TLs themselv es are designed to be narro w , thereby reducing the footprint. Figure 4. The die microphotograph of the D-band amplifier . Low-P ower D-Band CMOS Amplifier for Ultr ahigh-Speed W ir eless ... (T uan Anh V u) Evaluation Warning : The document was created with Spire.PDF for Python.
936 ISSN: 2088-8708 T able 1. Comparison with pre vious published amplifiers operating in the similar frequenc y band P arameter MWCL ’11 [10] Elec. Let’11 [11] APMC’13 [12] RFIT’15 [5] This w ork CMOS T echnology 65 nm 65 nm 65 nm 40 nm 40 nm No. of Stages 3/Dif ferential 5/Dif ferential 4/Dif ferential 5/Dif ferential 3/Differ ential Gain (dB) 20.6 8.1 7.1 19.7 9.6 Center Freq. (GHz) 144 200 147 138 150 -3 dB BW(GHz) 3* 5* 13* 22 26.5 Die Area (mm 2 ) 0.05 0.06 0.12 0.06 0.06 Supply V oltage (V) 1.4 2.0 2.0 0.94 0.7 Po wer Cons. (mW) 54.6 108 104 75 27.3 GBWP/ P DC 0.59 0.12 0.28 2.83 2.93 * Estimated graphically 3. MEASUREMENT RESUL TS In order to v erify the performance of the D-band amplifier , a chip prototype w as f abricated in TSMC 40 nm CMOS. Fig. 4 sho ws the die microphotograph of the amplifier . The amplifier occupies an area of 0.65 0.74 mm 2 including probe pads, input and output balun while its core is only 0.06 mm 2 . The rat -race balun composed of the 71 GCPW -TLs is designed for con v ersion between the single-ended and dif ferential signals at the inputs and outputs of the amplifier . The length of the GCPW -TL unit of the rat-race balun is 300 µm which is equi v alent to /4 at 150 GHz ( is the w a v e length). The compact design is realized by folding the GCPW -TLs and sharing the GND w all. The amplifier w as measured by means of on-chip probings using a probe station. The RF probe pads were designed for ground-signal-ground (GSG) probes with 750 µm pitch. The Anritsu 37397D VN A and D-band frequenc y e xtenders were used for measuring small-signal S-parameters. Fig. 5 sho ws the measured and simulated S-parameters of the D-band amplifier . As can be seen in this figure, the measured results sho w good agreements with the simulated ones. Both input and output ret urn loss indicate wideband performance when S 11 and S 22 remain belo w -10 dB o v er the -3 dB bandwidth from 138 GHz to 164.5 GHz. The D-band amplifier achie v es a peak g ain of 9.6 dB at 150 GHz (after compensating for the rat-race balun’ s loss). The re v erse isolation is lo wer than -40 dB. A high re v erse isolation guarantees high stability for the amplifier . Fig. 6 plots the output po wer v ersus the input po wer . A K e ysight E8244A signal generator and a V i v aT ech VTXF A-06-12 signal module were used for generating input signal at 150 GHz while a VDI PM5-305V po wer sensor w as used to measure the output po wer . At 150 GHz, the designed amplifier obtains a OP1dB of approximately 1.5 dBm. The amplifier consumes a lo w po wer of 27.3 mW from a 0.7 V supply v oltage. T able 1 summarizes the performance of the proposed amplifier and compares it to other published ones operating in the similar frequenc y range. Figure 5. The measured and simulated S-parameter of the D-band amplifier . IJECE V ol. 8, No. 2, April 2018: 933 938 Evaluation Warning : The document was created with Spire.PDF for Python.
IJECE ISSN: 2088-8708 937 Figure 6. The measured and simulated output po wer v ersus the input po wer of the D-band amplifier . 4. CONCLUSIONS In this paper , we ha v e presented the designs and measurement results of the D-band amplifier tar geted for ultrahigh-speed wireless communications. The proposed amplifier obtains the peak g ain of 9.6 dB o v er the -3 dB bandwidth from 138 GHz to 164.5 GHz. Supplied by the 0.7 V supply v oltage, the amplifier consumes the lo w po wer of 27.3 mW while its core occupies the chip area of 0.06 mm 2 . A CKNO WLEDGEMENT This w ork w as supported by the R&D on W ireless T ranscei v er Systems with CMOS T echnology in 300- GHz Band, as part of an R&D program on K e y T echnology in T erahertz Frequenc y B ands of the Ministry of Internal Af f airs and Communications, Japan. REFERENCES [1] H.-J. Song, J.-Y . Kim, K. Ajito, N. K ukutsu, and M. Y aita, 50-gb/s Direct Con v ersion QPSK Modulator and Demodulator MMICS for T erahertz Communications at 300 GHz, IEEE T ransactions on Micro w a v e Theory and T echniques , v ol. 62, no. 3, pp. 600-609, March 2014. [2] C. W ang, B. Lu, C. Lin, Q. Chen, L. Miao, X. Deng, and J. Zhang, 0.34-THz W ireless Link Based on High-Order Modulation for Future W ireless Local Area Netw ork Applications, IEEE T ransactions on T erahertz Science and T echnology , v ol. 4, no. 1, pp. 75-85, January 2014. [3] K. Katayama, K. T akano, S. Amaka w a, S. Hara, A. Kasamatsu, K. Mizuno, K. T akahashi, T . Y oshida, and M. Fujishima, A 300GHz 40nm CMOS T ransmitter with 32-QAM 17.5Gb/s/ch Capability o v er 6 Channels, 2016 IEEE International Solid-State Circuits Conference (ISSCC 2016) , pp. 342-343, February 2016. [4] S. Kang, S. V . Th yag arajan, and A. M. Niknejad, A 240GHz W ideband QPSK T ransmitter in 65nm CMOS, 2014 IEEE Radio Frequenc y Inte grated Circuits Symposium (RFIC 2014) , pp. 353-356, June 2014. [5] S. Hara, I. W atanabe, N. Sekine, A. Kasamatsu, K. Katayama, K. T akano, T . Y oshida, S. Amaka w a, and M. Fujishima, Compact 138-GHz Amplifier with 18-Db Peak Gain and 27-GHz 3-dB Bandwidth, 2015 IEEE Inter - national Symposium on Radio-Frequenc y Inte gration T echnology (RFIT 2015) , pp. 55-57, August 2015. [6] S. Amaka w a, R. Goda, K. Katayama, K. T akano, T . Y oshida, and M. Fujishima, W ideband CMOS Decoupling Po wer Line for Millimeter -w a v e Applicationss, 2015 IEEE MTT -S International Micro w a v e Symposium (IMS 2015) , pp. 1-5, May 2015. [7] N. Deferm and P . Re ynaer , ”CMOS Front Ends for Millimeter W a v e W ireless Communication Systems, Springer International Publishing , 2015. [8] M. Fujishima, M. Moto yoshi, K. Katayama, K. T akano, N. Ono, and R. Fujimoto, 98 mW 10 Gbps W ireless T ranscei v er Chipset with D-Band CMOS Ci rcuits, IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits , v ol. 48, no. 10, pp. Low-P ower D-Band CMOS Amplifier for Ultr ahigh-Speed W ir eless ... (T uan Anh V u) Evaluation Warning : The document was created with Spire.PDF for Python.
938 ISSN: 2088-8708 2273-2284, October 2013. [9] S. Hara, K. Katayama, K. T akano, I. W atanabe, N. Sekine, A. Kasamatsu, T . Y oshida, S. Amaka w a, and M. Fujishima, Compact 160-GHz Amplifier with 15-Db Peak Gain and 41-GHz 3-db Bandwidth, 2015 IEEE Radio Frequenc y Inte grated Circuits Symposium (RFIC 2015) , pp. 1-4, May 2015. [10] Z. Xu, Q. J. Gu, and M. F . Chang, A Three Stage, Fully Dif ferential 128-157 GHz CMOS Amplifier with W ide Band Matching, IEEE Micro w a v e and W ireless Components Letters , v ol. 21, no. 1, pp. 550552, October 2011. [11] Z. Xu, Q. J. Gu, and M. F . Chang, 200 GHz CMOS Amplifier W orking Close to De vice f T , IET Electronics Letters, v ol. 47, no. 11, pp. 639641, August 2011. [12] C. H. Li, C. W . Lai, and C. N. K uo, A 147 GHz Fully Dif ferential D-Band Amplifier Design in 65-nm CMOS, 2013 Asia-P acific Micro w a v e Conference (APMC 2013), pp. 691693, No v ember 2013. BIOGRAPHIES OF A UTHORS T uan Anh V u recei v ed the B.S de gree and M.Sc de gree in Electronics and T elecommunications T echnology from Uni v ersity of Engineering and T echnology , V ietnam National Uni v ersity in 2006 and 2009, respecti v ely . In 2013, he recei v ed Ph.D de gree in the field of analog/mix ed-signal RF nanoelectronics from Uni v ersity of Oslo, Norw ay . Since 2014, he has been a lecturer at F aculty of Electronics and T elecommunications, VNU Uni v ersity of Engineering and T echnology . Dr . T uan Anh V u w as doing postdoc at Department of Semiconductor Electronics and Inte gration Science, Hiroshima Uni v ersity , Japan. His research interests are analog RF inte grated c ircuit designs includ- ing po wer amplifiers, lo w noise amplifiers, mix ers, frequenc y multipliers, etc. K y oya T akano recei v ed the B.E., M.E., and Ph.D. de grees in electrical engineering from the Uni- v ersity of T ok yo, T ok yo, Japan in 2006, 2008, and 2012, respecti v ely . He joined Hiroshima Uni- v ersity , Hig ashi-hiroshima, Japan, as an Assistant Professor in 2012. His current research interests include design and modeling of millimeter -w a v e and terahertz CMOS circuits. Minoru Fujishima recei v ed his B.E., M.E. and Ph.D. de grees in Electronics Engineering from the Uni v ersity of T ok yo, Japan, in 1988, 1990 and 1993, respecti v ely . He joined the f aculty of the Uni v ersity of T ok yo in 1988 as a research associate and w as a n associate professor of the School of Frontier Sciences, Uni v ersity of T ok yo. He w as a visiting professor at the ESA T -MICAS Lab- oratory , Katholiek e Uni v ersiteit Leuv en, Belgium, from 1998 to 2000. Since 2009, he has been a professor of the Graduate School of Adv anced Sciences of Matter , Hiroshima Uni v ersity . He is currently serving as a technical committee member of se v eral international conferences. His current research interests are in the design of lo w-po wer ultrahigh-speed millimeter - and short-millimeter - w a v e wireless CMOS circuits. He is a member of IEEE and JSAP . IJECE V ol. 8, No. 2, April 2018: 933 938 Evaluation Warning : The document was created with Spire.PDF for Python.