A W-Band Single-Chip Receiver in a 60 nm GaN-on-Silicon Foundry Process

Paper in proceeding, 2021

This paper presents a compact W-band heterodyne receiver MMIC realised in a 60 nm GaN-on-Si foundry process. The single-chip receiver consists of an LNA with a measured NF of 4.4-5.5 dB at 90-95 GHz and a resistive down-conversion mixer with a frequency doubler for the multiplication of the LO signal. The measured receiver conversion gain is 0-7.4 dB/0-6.4 dB at 75-91 GHz when the LO/2 power is 20.5 dBm (IF=5 GHz/2 GHz). The measured receiver 1 dB compression point is found to occur at an input power level of -12 dBm and -9 dBm at 80 GHz and 91 GHz, respectively (IF=2GHz). To the best of our knowledge, this single-chip receiver achieves the smallest size (4 mm2), widest RF and IF bandwidths and highest linearity among reported GaN single-chip receivers in this frequency range. The receiver noise figure can be reduced by using an alternative GaN-on-Si LNA design with a measured average NF of 3.6-4.0 dB at 75-95 GHz and a measured maximum input 1 dB compression point of -3 dBm at 95 GHz.