A 200 GHz Heterodyne Image Receiver With an Integrated VCO in a SiGe BiCMOS Technology

Abstract

A 200 GHz heterodyne image receiver consisting of a mixer integrated with an on-chip voltage controlled oscillator (VCO) has been developed in a 0.18 mu m SiGe BiCMOS technology. Incoming signals near 200 GHz are down-converted by the 3rd-order subharmonic mixer with V-band local oscillator (LO) pumping, which is provided by the Colpitts VCO with a stacked common-base buffer. The measured minimum conversion loss is 11.5 dB at 196 GHz with an input 1 db compression point (P-1 (dB)) of -13 dBm. The fabricated chip with an area of 600 x 400 mu m(2) including pads consumes total DC power of 25.5 mW. A two-dimensional 200 GHz image acquired with the receiver is presented to demonstrate its imaging application.