A mm-Wave Segmented Power Mixer

The segmented power-mixer array based mm-wave power generation architecture is demonstrated to be an energy-efficient technique for generating high-speed nonconstant envelope modulations. High output power levels are achieved by efficiently combining power from several power mixers using an area efficient dual-primary distributed active transformer. The segmented scheme leads to back-off efficiency improvements while simultaneously providing direct envelope modulation eliminating the need for high-speed high-efficiency supply modulators. The power mixer is implemented in a 32-nm silicon-on-insulator CMOS process and provides a peak output power of 19.1 dBm at 51 GHz with a drain efficiency of 14.2% and a peak power-added efficiency of 10.1%. High-speed constant (binary phase-shift keying, quadrature phase-shift keying), as well as nonconstant envelope modulations (m-amplitude shift keying, quadrature amplitude modulation) show the versatility of the architecture towards spectrally efficient modulation schemes. Reliability against segment breakdown over long periods of time at 30% higher supply voltages has also been demonstrated.