Application of Resonator Coupling Network to RF Receiver Front-End and THz Interconnect Design

• Main Authors: Li, Chun-Hsing, 李俊興
• Other Authors: Kuo, Chien-Nan
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2013
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/75477315685711727334

博士 === 國立交通大學 === 電子工程學系 電子研究所 === 101 === This dissertation presents the application of a resonator coupling network (RCN) to low-power radio-frequency (RF) receiver front-end (RFE) and terahertz (THz) interconnect design. Theoretical analysis was conducted on the RCN to provide a systematic design flow with physical insights. To demonstrate the resonator coupling technique, two CMOS RFEs and a THz interconnect were designed and successfully verified by experimental results. A heterogeneously integrated THz signal source using the proposed THz interconnect for packaging was designed. Simulation shows excellent performance of high equivalent isotropically radiated power (EIRP). A broadband bondwire interconnect using a similar concept of a RCN is also presented in this dissertation. In the first place, theoretical analysis was conducted on the RCN, including capacitively coupled resonators (CCR) and inductively coupled resonators (ICR). Under the critical coupling, the RCN gives maximum passive gain at resonance frequencies, equivalent to the same level by an ideal transformer. This passive gain is appealing for low-power circuit design without consuming any power. An ICR was applied to a 5.5 GHz RFE design using 0.18-μm CMOS technology. The measured conversion gain can be as high as 17.4 dB while consuming only 0.33 mW from a 0.6 V supply. The second part of the dissertation focuses on the broadband behavior of an ICR. Analytic expressions for the critical coupling condition, passive gain, peak gain frequency separation, and ripple are presented to give design guidelines of wideband impedance transformation. The theory can handle the case of unequal source and load impedance. An ICR was employed to design a broadband RFE using 0.18-μm CMOS technology. Measured results show that the 3-dB bandwidth can span from 20 to 30 GHz with a peak conversion gain of 18.7 dB. The power consumption is only 5.2 mW from a 1.2 V supply while only occupying chip area of 0.18 mm2. For the broadband THz interconnect design, two resonators, one deployed on a chip and the other on a carrier, are coupled through electromagnetic filed to form a RCN, which can provide wideband signal transfer from a chip to a carrier. The interconnect performance was verified by experimental results from 140 GHz to 220 GHz. The minimum insertion loss is 0.47 dB at 164 GHz. The proposed interconnect was also exploited to design a high-performance THz signal source by heterogeneous integration of a differential triple-push oscillator using 40-nm CMOS and a patch antenna array on a SU8 carrier. The triple-push oscillator was successfully verified by experimental results. It can oscillate at 340.6 GHz with output power of -11.3 dBm. The power consumption is only 34.1 mW under a 0.9 V supply. Simulation indicates that the proposed heterogeneously integrated THz signal source can provide EIRP as high as 7.1 dBm. An idea of a broadband bondwire interconnect is inspired by the coupling concept of a RCN. Bandwidth limitation of a simple bondwire is alleviated in the proposed multi-path bondwire structure by adding transmission lines on both the chip and carrier. An interconnect from a 0.18-μm CMOS chip to a Glass-Integrated-Passive-Device (GIPD) carrier was designed to verify the proposed technique. Measured results show that the bandwidth can cover from DC to 84 GHz.