300-GHz Band 20-Gbps ASK Transmitter Module Based on InP-HEMT MMICs

This paper presents a module for a 300-GHz, 20-Gbps amplitude-shift keying (ASK) transmitter using monolithic microwave integrated circuits (MMICs) based on 80-nm-gate InP high-electron-mobility-transistor (InP-HEMT) technology. The MMICs consist of a power amplifier and modulator circuit. Output power of 9.5 dBm at 300 GHz was achieved in the power amplifier module by utilizing the back side DC power line in the chip layout. A travelling-wave switch used as an ASK modulator exhibited group delay deviation of ± 3.9 ps, which is small enough to achieve 20 Gbps modulation. Back-to-back data transmission at 300 GHz was demonstrated in an experiment using the ASK transmitter module. A Q factor of 6.3 was obtained as the receiver eye pattern, which is equivalent to a bit error rate (BER) of <; 1 × 10^-9 with 20 Gbps data transmission at 300 GHz frequency.