A fully integrated transmitter (TX) and receiver (RX) front-end chipset, produced in 0.25 µm SiGe:C bipolar and complementary metal oxide semiconductor (BiCMOS) technology, is presented. The front-end is intended for high-speed wireless communication in the unlicensed ISM band of 9 GHz around 60 GHz. The TXand RX features a modified heterodyne topology with a sliding intermediate frequency. The TX features a 12 GHz in-phase and quadrature (I/Q) mixer, an intermediate frequency (IF) amplifier, a phase-locked loop, a 60 GHz mixer, an image-rejection filter, and a power amplifier. The RX features a low-noise amplifier (LNA), a 60 GHz mixer, a phase-locked loop (PLL), and an IF demodulator. The measured 1-dB compression point at the TX output is 12.6 dBm and the saturated power is 16.2 dBm. The LNA has measured noise figure of 6.5 dB at 60 GHz. Error-free data transmission with a 16 quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) signal and data rate of 3.6 Gbit/s (without coding 4.8 Gbit/s) over 15 m was demonstrated. This is the best reported result regarding both the data rate and transmission distance in SiGe and CMOS without beamforming.
Passive Switched Capacitor RF Front Ends for Spectrum Sensing in Cognitive Radios
