A 60GHz transmitter in 0.18\mu m Silicon Germanium

Abstract

Simulated results for a silicon germanium transmitter operating at 60 GHz are presented. The super-heterodyne transmitter is based on a moving IF architecture with two up-conversion stages. The transmitter includes a baseband to 12 GHz image- reject mixer, a 12 to 60 GHz Gilbert-cell mixer, a passive balun and a power amplifier capable of greater than 13 dBm saturated output power. All bias voltages are tuneable using a 3-wire serial interface connected to 4-bit DAC's. Also on-chip is a frequency synthesizer that supplies the LO to both mixers and locks the on-chip 24 GHz VCO to an external source.