Non-Coherent TX-RX Chipsets for J-band Communication in 16-nm FinFET CMOS

This paper presents a set of Transmit (TX) and Receive (RX) chipsets for J-band (252-325 GHz) communication, implemented in 16-nm FinFET CMOS. Both systems are designed to utilize amplitude-shift-keying (ASK) modulation and to operate non-coherently, alleviating the need for a synchronized LO between TX and RX. Both chips are characterized standalone in a probe station. The TX achieves an output power of -19 dBm at 270 GHz center frequency with a 3-dB bandwidth of 45 GHz. The RX has a conversion gain of 31 dB with a baseband bandwidth of 0-25 GHz. The performance of the RX is verified with modulated measurements, with up to 20 Gbps NRZ at 280 GHz carrier, limited by the measurement setup.