Alexandre Siligaris

This letter presents an energy-efficient system with a transmitter and a receiver comprising multichannel integrated circuits (ICs) in 45-nm CMOS technology and antennas-in-package feeding high-directivity planar lenses. Data rates up to 56 Gb/s are demonstrated over a 1-m point-to-point link using a full-digital communication system. The active circuits integrate multiple local oscillator generators for implementing a channel-aggregation architecture that provides a large radio frequency (RF) bandwidth (BW) using a significantly narrower baseband (BB) interface BW. The energy consumption of the overall system is only 33 pJ/bit.

We present two high-efficiency baseband (BB)-to- D -Band transmitting systems based on a novel channel-aggregation architecture. They comprise a first integrated circuit (IC) for channel aggregation at intermediate frequency (IF) and a two-channel 45-nm CMOS transmitter (TX) flip-chipped on antenna-in-package (AiP), which illuminates a high-gain flat lens antenna in standard printed circuit board technology. The two signals emitted by the active antenna module, in adjacent bands, are aggregated over the air and collimated by the flat lens. Two TXs using a standard and a folded transmitarray antenna (TA), three times thinner than the former one, are realized and compared. They achieve similar performance in the operating band (139.3–156.6 GHz), with a measured peak effective isotropic radiated power (EIRP) of 30 dBm. A wireless point-to-point link is demonstrated with the proposed transmitting system and a commercial receiver. A data rate (DR) of 57.6 Gb/s is measured at 1 m using eight channels and a 16-quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) scheme, with an energy efficiency of 27.4 pJ/b.

This work focusses on the modeling of the Phase Noise (PhN) through the building blocks of a high-order-N frequency multiplication circuit that uses Pulsed injection Locking Oscillator (P-OSC). The proposed analytical expressions allow predicting the transformation of PhN through different blocks of the frequency multiplier. To cope with the inherent nonlinear characteristics of frequency multiplication circuits, simplified nonlinear equivalent circuits (NEC) are used to loosen the time and memory constraints of the numerical simulations. The analytical results show good agreements with Harmonic Balance simulations of NEC. This work helps determining the circuit key parameters controlling Phase Noise and output integrated RMS Jitter for optimization purposes.

The WADAPT consortium (Wireless Allowing Data and Power Transfer) was created to study wireless (multi-gigabit) data transfer for high-energy physics applications (LoI, CERN-LHCC-2017-002; LHCC-I-028.-2017). Emerging millimetre wave technologies allow fast signal transfer and efficient partitioning of detectors in topological regions of interest. Large bandwidths are available at those frequencies, allowing very high data rates at short range and conveniently substituting a mass of materials (cables and connectors). The Wadapt initiative aims at building proof of concept for use in future HEP experiments. For vertex detectors at HL-LHC, the bandwidth of 60 GHz is adequate and commercial products are already available, providing 6 Gbps data links. Products have been tested for signal confinement, crosstalk, electromagnetic immunity and resistance to radiation. An HEP dedicated 60 GHz Integrated Chip is being built in Heidelberg, using 130 nm SiGe BICMOS technology. It should assess the feasibility and performance of the wireless link and establish solid foundation for designing the final reading system. At longer terms, 140 GHz bands could also be used for higher data rates (> 100 Gbps) for future FCC applications. Wireless reading could widespread to many detectors, with the possibility of adding intelligence on the detector to perform four-dimensional reconstruction of the traces and vertexes online, in order to attach the traces to their vertex with great efficiency even in difficult experimental conditions. The WADAPT project includes also a long-term step aimed at transmitting energy wirelessly. This would create a new paradigm for the transmission of data and power in particle physics detectors.

This paper presents a mm-wave compact, ultra-wideband reflection-type phase shifter (RTPS). This phase shifter is dedicated to phased array transmitter based on LO-path phase shifting for beamforming and beam-steering applications in the sub-mm-wave band. The proposed RTPS is designed using a slow-wave coplanar waveguide coupler and reflective loads. The circuit was fabricated in BiCMOS 55 nm technology. As predicted by simulations, measurement results show a relative phase shift of 61°±1° that is very stable over a wide frequency range from 30 GHz to 50 GHz, with insertion loss of 4 dB ± 1 dB at 50 GHz, leading to a figure-of-merit (FoM) of 12°/dB. The measured return loss is always better than 10 dB across the whole band. The chip area is only 0.18 mm ² .

A new concept based on the injection of a periodically repeated oscillations train into an oscillator is presented. It is based on a phenomenon named pseudo-locking, leading to a novel programmable harmonic selection technique. Theoretical description of the concept is presented, in particular an analytical condition is carried out, paving the way of design rules. For a proof of concept, an oscillator fabricated on a 40 nm CMOS technology was measured. The concept was validated by measured phase noise equivalent to classical fundamental injection locking phase noise performance.