A 60-GHz CMOS Transmitter with Gain-Enhanced On-Chip Antenna for Short-Range Wireless Interconnections

A 60-GHz CMOS transmitter with on-chip antenna for high-speed short-range wireless interconnections is presented. The radiation gain of the on-chip antenna is doubled using helium-3 ion irradiation technique. The transmitter core is composed of a resistive-feedback RF amplifier, a double-balanced passive mixer, and an injection-locked oscillator. The wideband and power-saving design of the transmitter core guarantees the low-power and high-data-rate characteristic. The transmitter fabricated in a 65-nm CMOS process achieves 5-Gb/s data rate with an EVM performance of 12 dB for BPSK modulation at a distance of 1 mm. The whole transmitter consumes 17mW from a 1.2-V supply and occupies a core area of 0.64 mm(2) including the on-chip antenna. The gain-enhanced antenna together with the wideband and power-saving design of the transmitter provides a low-power low-cost full on-chip solution for the short-range high-data-rate wireless communication.