A 140 GHz Heterodyne Receiver Chipset for Passive Millimeter Wave Imaging Applications

Author

Koch, S. ; Guthoerl, M. ; Kallfass, I. ; Leuther, A. ; Saito, S.

Author_Institution

Sony Deutschland GmbH, Stuttgart, Germany

fYear

2009

fDate

11-14 Oct. 2009

Firstpage

1

Lastpage

4

Abstract

A heterodyne receiver chipset for 140 GHz passive millimeter wave imaging applications is presented in this paper. The chipset consists of two different millimeter wave monolithic integrated circuits (MIMICs): a voltage controlled oscillator (VCO) working in the 35 GHz frequency range and a receiver chip hosting a low noise amplifier, a down-conversion mixer, a frequency multiplier and a local oscillator buffer amplifier together with a local oscillator distribution network. Both chips presented are realized using latest 100 nm gatelength metamorphic InAlAs / InGaAs HEMT (high electron mobility transistor) technology on 50 mum thick and 4 inch diameter GaAs substrates. The chips are utilizing grounded coplanar waveguide (GCPW) technology. Within the frequency band of operation from 120 to 145 GHz the receiver is showing a noise figure of ~ 5 dB and a conversion gain between -1 and 2 dB. The voltage controlled oscillator can be tuned from 31 to 37 GHz with associated output power levels from -2 to +2 dISin. All building blocks are explained in detail and measured results are presented. Finally the overall receiver performance is given.

Keywords

MIMIC; coplanar waveguides; distribution networks; frequency multipliers; high electron mobility transistors; low noise amplifiers; microwave mixers; millimetre wave receivers; voltage-controlled oscillators; MIMICs; VCO; down-conversion mixer; frequency 120 GHz to 145 GHz; frequency 31 GHz to 37 GHz; frequency multiplier; grounded coplanar waveguide technology; heterodyne receiver chipset; high electron mobility transistor; local oscillator buffer amplifier; local oscillator distribution network; low noise amplifier; metamorphic HEMT; millimeter wave monolithic integrated circuits; passive millimeter wave imaging applications; size 100 nm; size 4 inch; size 50 mum; voltage controlled oscillator; Distributed amplifiers; Frequency; HEMTs; Local oscillators; Low-noise amplifiers; MIMICs; Millimeter wave technology; Millimeter wave transistors; Monolithic integrated circuits; Voltage-controlled oscillators;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Compound Semiconductor Integrated Circuit Symposium, 2009. CISC 2009. Annual IEEE

Conference_Location

Greensboro, NC

ISSN

1550-8781

Print_ISBN

978-1-4244-5191-3

Electronic_ISBN

1550-8781

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/csics.2009.5315792

Filename

5315792