A Fully Packaged 130-GHz QPSK Transmitter With an Integrated PRBS Generator

This letter presents a fully packaged 130-GHz QPSK transmitter (TX) with an on-package Vivaldi antenna for high-density dielectric waveguide (DWG) chip-to-chip and board-to-board interconnects. The TX chip contains a multiplier chain for the local oscillator path, up-conversion mixers, and a two-stage power amplifier. For testing, the chip also includes two $2^{7} - 1$ sequence-programmable high-speed pseudo-random bit generators, each capable of generating 18 Gb/s (limited by test equipment) at energy efficiency of 0.7 pJ/bit. The fully packaged TX achieves a data rate of 36 Gb/s over a 1-m-long DWG link, leading to energy efficiency of 6 pJ/bit.