A 110-to-170-GHz OOK Transmitter with 40-Gb/s Data Rate and 40-dB On-Off Ratio in 28-nm CMOS

This paper presents a D-band on-off keying (OOK) transmitter fabricated in 28-nm CMOS process. A current-controlled OOK modulator with always-off cancellation technique is proposed to enhance the data rate and the on-off ratio. The transmitter exhibits an output power exceeding 10 dBm and an on-off ratio of 40 dB. Its 3-dB output power bandwidth is from 110 to 170 GHz, covering the full D band to support a high data rate. Without the assistance of DSP for equalization, the measurements demonstrate an on-wafer data rate up to 40 Gb/s and over-the-air (OTA) data rates of 21 Gb/s and 15 Gb/s at distances of 3 cm and 8 cm respectively with a bit error rate (BER) of less than 10-12.