A homodyne transceiver MMIC using SiGe:C technology for 60 GHz wireless applications

A highly integrated transceiver microwave monolithic integrated circuit (MMIC) manufactured in a 200-GHz SiGe:C production technology is presented, applicable for sensing- and broadband communication applications. To simplify the analog frontend, the fully differential design is based on a homodyne architecture. It comprises an LO signal generation unit based on a wideband 60 GHz fundamental Voltage Controlled Oscillator (VCO) and an on-chip prescaler, covering the full operational frequency band of 57-64 GHz. Within this bandwidth, the upconverter exhibits an upconversion gain of 23.6-26.4 dB and a maximum output-referred 1-dB compression point of 14 dBm. The downconverter provides a Double Sideband (DSB) noise figure of 9-12 dB with a downconversion gain of 37-71 dB. On chip AC-coupling of the receiver IF-output with a lower -3 dB cut-off frequency as low as 16 kHz eliminates mixer DC-offsets and enables on-chip Intermediate Frequency (IF) amplification. The whole transceiver MMIC draws a current of 415 mA from a single 3.3 V supply and requires few components externally to the chip.