A 180-GHz CMOS down-converter MMIC for atmospheric remote sensing applications

In this paper, we study the feasibility of using CMOS circuit blocks for designing future light weight, small in size atmospheric remote sensing receivers. A compact CMOS down-converter is designed which operates from 160 to 188 GHz and includes a sub-harmonically pumped I/Q resistive mixer, two IF amplifiers and a voltage controlled oscillator (VCO) with LO buffer. A measured down-conversion gain of +2.6 dB is achieved with a total dc power consumption of 152 mW using the nominal supply of +1.2 V. The measurement results show a 3 dB IF bandwidth from 1 to 5 GHz and the VCO tuning range is from 85 to 89 GHz. The designed CMOS MMIC down-converter including the probing pads occupies a silicon area of 0.575 mm^2.