A 32Gbit/s 16QAM CMOS receiver in 300GHz band

Abstract

Building receivers (RXs) that operate above the transistor unity-power-gain frequency, fmax, is extremely challenging because an LNA-less architecture must be adopted. This paper reports on a 300-GHz CMOS RX operating above NMOS /max. Its conversion gain, noise figure, and 3-dB bandwidth are, respectively, −19.5 dB, 27 dB, and 26.5 GHz. The RX achieved a wireless data rate of 32 Gb/s with 16QAM. It shows the potential of moderate-/fmax CMOS technology to be used for ultrahigh-speed THz wireless communications.