60 GHz Amplifier Employing Slow-wave Transmission Lines in 65-nm CMOS

A three-stage V-band amplifier implemented in 65-nm baseline CMOS technology is presented in this paper. Slow-wave coplanar waveguides are used for matching and interconnects to study the benefits of using this line type in amplifier design. Measured power gain, noise figure and 1 dB output compression point at 60 GHz are 13 dB, 6.3 dB and +4 dBm, respectively. The amplifier has 19.6 GHz of 3 dB bandwidth, thus covering entirely the unlicenced band around 60-GHz. The performance is achieved with a 1.2 V supply and 45 mA DC-current consumption.