A 46-GHz Direct Wide Modulation Bandwidth ASK Modulator in 0.13-$\mu$m CMOS Technology

A 46-GHz direct wide modulation bandwidth amplitude shift keying (ASK) modulator with an embedded voltage controlled oscillator (VCO) is proposed in this letter. This circuit is fabricated using a standard commercial bulk 0.13-mum CMOS technology and exhibits a modulation bandwidth wider than 1 GHz with a chip size of 390 times 480 mum
²
. The recovered time-domain waveform shows a very good eye-pattern opening. To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first direct ASK modulator with an embedded VCO in the millimeter-wave regime using CMOS processes.