160 GHz D-Band Low-Noise Amplifier and Power Amplifier for Radar-Based Contactless Vital-Signs-Monitoring Systems

Area of Science:

• Electronics Engineering
• Biomedical Engineering
• Radio Frequency (RF) Engineering

Background:

• Millimeter-wave (mmWave) frequencies, specifically the D-band (110-170 GHz), offer significant bandwidth for advanced applications.
• Contactless monitoring of vital signs presents a growing area of interest in remote healthcare and human-computer interaction.
• The development of efficient and high-performance integrated circuits is crucial for realizing these mmWave applications.

Purpose of the Study:

• To design and implement a D-band low-noise amplifier (LNA) and a D-band power amplifier (PA) using Global Foundries 22nm CMOS FDSOI technology.
• To evaluate the performance of these amplifiers for potential use in contactless vital sign monitoring systems.
• To demonstrate the feasibility of D-band integrated circuits for emerging health sensing applications.

Main Methods:

• The low-noise amplifier (LNA) was designed using a multi-stage cascode topology with common source input/output stages, focusing on simultaneous input/output matching and maximized voltage swing.
• The power amplifier (PA) design details are not elaborated but are implemented in the same technology node.
• Both circuits were fabricated using Global Foundries 22nm CMOS Fully Depleted Silicon-on-Insulator (FDSOI) technology.

Main Results:

• The LNA achieved a maximum gain of 17 dB at 163 GHz with a -3 dB gain bandwidth of 157-166 GHz.
• The measured noise figure for the LNA ranged from 7.6 dB to 8 dB within the operational bandwidth.
• The PA demonstrated an output 1 dB compression point (P1dB) of 6.8 dBm at 159.75 GHz, with power consumptions of 28.8 mW (LNA) and 10.8 mW (PA).

Conclusions:

• The developed D-band LNA and PA are suitable for contactless vital sign monitoring applications.
• The 22nm CMOS FDSOI technology provides a viable platform for high-frequency integrated circuit design in the D-band.
• These amplifiers represent a significant step towards realizing compact and efficient mmWave systems for remote health monitoring.