• 60 GHz
• Finite element
• HFSS
• integrated antenna
• mm-Wave
• OOK
• Transceiver

CHAPTER 1 is an introduction to 60 GHz communication.

CHAPTER 2 covers the challenges that are faced in the design, simulation and measurements of mm-wave passive components and antennas. An in depth description of the design flow in the finite element EM solver HFSS is given, and the choices for the settings applied in the simulations are justified.

in CHAPTER 3 The state of the art in mm-wave antennas is discussed, with special emphasis on antenna measurement techniques. Three recent works with interesting and experimentally backed results, and original experimental techniques were selected.

In CHAPTER 4 the HFSS modeling and simulations of integrated antennas, inductors, baluns and transmission lines are presented. The devices specifically simulated in this work were designed in a simplified model of the BEOL (Back End of Line) of the technology ST SOI 28 nm. These simulations were performed in the same conditions of previous theses where UMC CMOS 65nm and ST SOI 65nm had been studied. A comparative analysis of the results in different technologies was thus possible, evidencing minor differences for passives and antennas implementation. Automatic synthesis methods were also investigated and a theoretical background for the results was searched.

In CHAPTER 5 the state of the art in 60 GHz transceivers for Wireless short range is reported. An OOK transmitter in technology UMC CMOS 65nm was designed. The transmitter is composed by a cross-coupled oscillator, an OOK (On-Off Keying) modulator and a PA, and each of these blocks was separately characterized in detail. Power combining through a two and four way On-chip Wilkinson combiner was also evaluated to increase the output power of the transmitter extending the maximum communication distance. All these simulations were made more realistic importing the inductors and transmission lines from the library designed in HFSS for the same technology, RF MOM (Metal-On-Metal) capacitors models were already present in the DK libraries.

CHAPTER 6 puts together the results of CHAPTER 5 and [1], where a LNA in technology UMC (United Microelectronics Corporation) CMOS 65 nm had been designed, to conduct a link budget analysis on a fully integrated transceiver for wireless short range applications. The same On-chip dipole antenna co-designed for the CMOS 65 nm LNA was considered for the TX and the RX, allowing to use an antenna switch for a TDD .Other high level considerations are done and the opportunity to use a high coding gain method is considered, to reliably extend the communication distance reducing the effective data rate.