A compact W-band mixer-first receiver in 65 nm CMOS

We present a compact W-band mixer-first receiver consisting of a passive single-balanced mixer, on-chip balun, and a variable gain amplifier with 1.9 GHz of bandwidth over a gain range of 36 dB in 65 nm CMOS. The W-band front-end has been implemented aiming at a compact frequency-modulated continuous-wave (FMCW) radar as a proximity sensor, and a down-converting chain for a total power radiometer combined with external low noise amplifier. The measured gain of the W-band receiver is 25 dB, and the receiver achieves 2.57 dBm of IIP3. The integrated receiver consumes 14.56 mA from a supply voltage of 1.2 V, and the core chip occupies only 0.39 mm ² .