An 135GHz Direct-Digital 16-QAM Modulator in 28nm CMOS

This work presents an 135GHz direct-digital 16QAM modulator with independent amplitude and phase modulation. The modulator, implemented in 28nm CMOS, requires an 135 GHz local oscillator signal with a power level of 3 dBm and the peak output power is -3dBm. The total DC power consumption of the 16-QAM is 50mW, with a maximum data rate of 21 Gb/s, while maintaining EVM below -22.8dB.