V-band fully-integrated TX/RX single-chip 3-D MMICs using commercial GaAs pHEMT technology for high-speed wireless applications

On the status of low noise millimeterwave MMIC receivers

“…For critical applications where the noise figure is of utmost importance, InP HEMT or GaAs mHEMT technologies offers state-of-the-art in noise performance but the level of integration comparable to silicon technologies have so far not been commonly demonstrated. References [10], [11] show, as examples, the present level of integration for GaAs. In [11], a three stage LNA, image reject mixer and a X8 frequency multiplier were integrated.…”

“…Technologies such as CMOS, SiGe HBT and GaAs have been utilized. The noise figure varies between 4 dB [10] for the GaAs based receivers to 6-7 dB for the best silicon based receivers. At higher frequencies, a receiver based on 65 nm CMOS technology was recently demonstrated with 7 dB noise figure [12].…”

MMICs in the millimeter-wave regime

“…Most millimeter-wave single-chip transmit/receive MMICs have been fabricated in III-V technologies (GaAs or InP) because of their superior RF characteristics [1]- [6], [19]- [21]. Silicon-based technologies have the potential to enable integration of both front-end and baseband blocks.…”

“…Current millimeter-wave single-chip transceivers integrate transmit/receive function blocks, potentially including the power amplifier (PA), local oscillator (LO), and antenna together. Most such millimeter-wave transmit/receive MMICs were fabricated in GaAs technologies in the past [1]- [6], [19]- [21]; however, siliconbased(CMOS, silicon germanium heterojunction bipolar transistor (SiGe HBT) or BiCMOS) single-chip transmit/receive MMICs have been reported in the last two to three years [7]- [18], [22]. In this article, the current status of compound semiconductor and silicon-based millimeter-wave MMICs will be reviewed, and the future trends in millimeter-wave system on chip (SOC) will be discussed.…”

A Highly Integrated Quasi-millimeter Wave Transmitter MMIC Using 3D-MMIC Technology

“…NTT developed three-dimensional MMIC (3D-MMIC) technology [1]- [2], which significantly miniaturizes MMICs. Figure 1 shows the basic 3D-MMIC structure.…”