10-15-Gbps V-Band OOK Transmitters in 0.25-µm SiGe BiCMOS Technology

The designs, implementations and characterizations of two V-band ultra-high-speed On-Off-Keying (OOK) transmitters are presented in this paper. Designed at two operating frequencies of 60 GHz and 70 GHz, the two transmitters can operate with a maximum data rate of 15 Gbps and 10 Gbps, respectively. The cores of both transmitters are based on a fast-switching OOK modulator in which the states of the load impedance and the bias current are controlled simultaneously to maximize the switching speed. An off-state-compensation technique is implemented to enhance the on-off ratio of the modulator to simplify the detection task of an OOK demodulator. The 70-GHz transmitter has a common-collector Colpitts oscillator integrated on chip. The 60- GHz transmitter is realized as a chipset by incorporating the modulator with an oscillator and a power amplifier. Fabricated in a 0.25-micrometer SiGe BiCMOS process, the 70-GHz transmitter core can operate with a maximum data rate of 10 Gbps while consuming 66 mW from a 2-V supply voltage. The maximum data rate of the 60-GHz transmitter chipset was found at 15 Gbps at a power consumption of 320 mW.