A V-Band BiCMOS power detector for millimeter-wave applications

This paper presents a V-Band Bi-CMOS 55nm power detector designed to be used in mmWave circuits for automatic level control (ALC) and built-in self test (BIST). The proposed detector shows a simulated detection range of about 35 dB in the 50 GHz to 90 GHz frequency band. Sensitivity to -30 dBm input power is demonstrated thanks to the use of common base bipolar transistor as input stage. The design and optimization steps are described in order to provide a general methodology to design high performance power detectors.