A 60-GHz RF IQ DAC transceiver with on-die at-speed loopback

A radio transceiver with direct 5.3-Gb/s carrier modulation using a 60-GHz 2-bit IQ DAC, a zero-IF IQ receiver, a PLL with a single- 60-GHz VCO and an integrated crystal oscillator, was designed and fabricated in a 130-nm SiGe BiCMOS technology. It covers the entire 57–66 GHz band with digitally-programmable 0-to-10 dBm output power and −15 to 60 dB receiver gain, and 5 dB noise figure. Depending on the receive-path gain, the IP1 varies between −55 dBm and 0 dBm. The chip consumes 350mW/225mW in TX/RX mode.