A 144 GHz 2.5mW multi-stage regenerative receiver for mm-Wave imaging in 65nm CMOS

This paper introduces the multi-stage regenerative receiver, an architecture that extends the super-regenerative receiver beyond the classical single-stage configuration to achieve higher gain and sensitivity. This makes the receiver ideal for mm-wave imaging by relaxing the required illumination power in the link budget. The receiver is implemented in 65nm CMOS and achieves a sensitivity of -74 dBm, a NF of 10.2 dB, consumes 2.5mW of power and occupies 0.02mm
²
of chip area.