A 165GHz OOK transmitter with 10.6% peak DC-to-RF efficiency in 65nm bulk CMOS

This paper presents a high efficiency 165 GHz OOK transmitter on a 65nm CMOS technology, including a transformer impedance optimization based fundamental cross-coupled oscillator followed by a high-speed and high on-off ratio SPST switch based modulator. The transmitter demonstrates the highest DC-to-RF efficiency (10.6%) beyond 140 GHz in silicon processes, with a high output power (0.66 dBm), a high on-off ratio (> 32 dB) and a low phase noise (-105.4 dBc/Hz @ 1 MHz offset). The standalone oscillator also demonstrates the record DC-to-RF efficiency of 25.9% beyond 140 GHz in silicon processes. The transmitter is designed compact with the core area of 240 μm × 130 μm.