Towards THz high data-rate communication: a 50 Gbps all-electronic wireless link at 240 GHz

This paper presents a fully-integrated direct-conversion quadrature transmitter and receiver implemented in a SiGe HBT technology with fT/fmax=350/550 GHz working at a carrier frequency of 240 GHz. The transmitter has a 3-dB RF/LO bandwidth of 35 GHz with a peak output power of 8.5 dBm, while the receiver presents 22 GHz of RF/LO 3-dB bandwidth with peak conversion gain of 21 dB and a single side band (SSB) noise figure of 9.5 dB. Each of the modules is implemented in a single silicon chip, including a broadband silicon lens-integrated on-chip antenna, and assembled on a low-cost high-speed PCB with a recess to accommodate the chip and wire-bonding compensation structures. This results in an IF bandwidth of 13 GHz at the board-connector level. The preliminary wireless-link test for a distance of 1 m has demonstrated data-rates of 30 Gbps with an EVM of 26% and 50 Gbps with an EVM of 29% for BPSK and QPSK modulation respectively, without applying any channel equalization or error correction techniques.