A W-Band Switch-Less Dicke Receiver for Millimeter-Wave Imaging in 65 nm CMOS

Abstract

This paper presents a switch-less direct-detection Dicke receiver for millimeter-wave imaging applications. A configurable dual-path low-noise amplifier (CDP-LNA) with negative transformer feedback and inductive positive feedback is proposed to remove lossy switches in traditional Dicke receivers. Under a 1.8-V supply voltage, the CDP-LNA consumes 52.3-mW dc power and each path of the CDP-LNA achieves a power gain of 26.8 dB, a minimum noise figure of 6.4 dB, and a 3-dB bandwidth of 25.5 GHz. Based on the inherent switching of the CDP-LNA, a switch-less Dicke receiver is implemented, eliminating sensitivity degradation due to the insertion loss of the Dicke switch. Fabricated in the 65-nm CMOS process, the prototype exhibits a 3-dB bandwidth of 11.5 GHz with a center frequency of 82.5 GHz, achieving a noise-equivalent power of 9.3 fW/Hz 0.5 and a noise-equivalent temperature difference of 0.65 K with a total power consumption of 52.6 mW.

Keywords

• CMOS
• Dicke receiver
• direct detection
• gain boosting
• low-noise amplifier (LNA)
• mm-wave imaging