InP HBT Voltage Controlled Oscillator for

300-GHz-Band Wireless Communications

Jae-Young Kim, Ho-Jin Song, Katsuhiro Ajito, Makoto Yaita, and Naoya Kukutsu
NTT Microsystem Integration Laboratories
NTT Corporation
3-1 Morinosato-Wakamiya, Atsugi, Kanagawa, Japan
kim.jaeyoung@lab.ntt.co.jp
Abstract We present a 300-GHz-band fundamental
voltage controlled oscillator (VCO) for wireless
communications using 0.25-m InP HBT technology. The
VCO exhibits about -2-dBm differential output power and
10-GHz frequency tuning range with dc power
consumption of 46.2 mW. The oscillation frequency band
of the VCO can be extended over 360 GHz in the same
structure.
Keywords-THz wireless communication, 300 GHz, InP HBT
MMIC, voltage controlled oscillator

I.

INTRODUCTION

The progressively increasing multimedia consumption in

the mobile environment has led the development of higher
capacity wireless systems with a high-order modulation
scheme or wide radio bandwidth [1]. In general, the available
radio bandwidth tends to be proportional to the RF carrier
frequency. Thus, the recent emergence of millimeter-wave
(mm-wave) wireless technologies using 60-GHz or 120-GHz
bands reflects the huge need for the high-speed wireless
systems with higher carrier frequency [2-3]. In a similar
manner, the THz frequency band, especially 300 GHz, has
received much attention for the next generation of wireless
communications with over 10-Gbit/s data transmission capacity
[4].
However, in the high-frequency band over 100 GHz,
achieving the basic functions for communications, such as RF
carrier generation and amplification, has been challenging due
to the bandwidth limitation of electrical devices. For this
reason, the feasibility of wireless communications over 100
GHz has been demonstrated with photonic-RF generation
techniques [5-8]. As the most successful case to date, NTT has
developed 120-GHz wireless communication system using a
photodiode-based photonic emitter and an integrated HEMT
amplifier [5]. Later, the photonic-RF generation parts were
replaced with a monolithically integrated circuit (IC) to reduce
transceiver size. [3]. The 300-GHz band wireless technology is
in the early stage of development and uses photonic technology
for THz signal generation and electrical technology for the
detector [6-7]. With this approach, the feasibility of a 300-GHz
wireless link has been demonstrated with 12.5-Gbit/s data
transmission over a distance of 0.5 m [7]. The data rate and

978-1-4673-2990-3/12/$31.00 2012 IEEE

coverage of the 300-GHz band wireless link is mainly limited

by the available transmission power from the photonic emitter
and the sensitivity of the detector.
Recent progress in the semiconductor processes has started
supporting high-speed electronic devices, such as InP-based
high electron mobility transistors (HEMTs) [8] and
heterojunction bipolar transistors (HBTs) [9] operating up to
the 1-THz region. In addition, the basic functional blocks, such
as a mixer [10], amplifier [11] and oscillators [12-14], have
been demonstrated at around 300-GHz band. The InP-based
integrated circuit (IC) approach is promising for high-power
signal generation and a compact transceiver. Meanwhile,
oscillators over 300-GHz band have been demonstrated based
on CMOS technology [15-16] or a resonant tunneling diode
[17]. However, the output powers are not sufficient for
practical wireless transceivers.
In this paper, we present a 300-GHz band fundamental
voltage controlled oscillator (VCO) using InP HBT technology.
The differential VCO is based on the common-collector
Colpitts structure integrated with common-base output buffers
in a cascade structure for operation up to 365 GHz.
II.

DESIGN PRINCIPLE

The VCO was designed with the 0.25-m double

heterojunction bipolar transistor (DHBT) process [9]. The
extrapolated maximum current gain cutoff frequency (ft) and
maximum power gain cutoff (fmax) of the transistor are 370 and
650 GHz, separately, at a bias condition of VCE= 1.8 V and JE=
8mA/m2. The HBTs are fabricated with epitaxial layers grown
by molecular beam epitaxy on semi-insulting InP substrate. A
30-nm carbon-doped base layer and chirped super-lattice
grading (InGaAs/InAlAs) are formed over the N--collector with
150-nm thickness. After the HBT fabrication, the devices are
passivated with a low-k spin-on-dielectric benzocyclobutene
(BCB). The back-end process includes thin-film resistors,
metal-insulator-metal (MIM) capacitors, and four-layers of
interconnects (M1-M4). The interconnect layers are formed
using a gold-based electroplating process and interlayer BCB
dielectrics with 2-m thickness. The thickness of the topmost
metal (M4) is 3 m.
Fig. 1 shows a schematic of the designed VCO. The basic
topology follows that of a common-collector Colpitts oscillator

-1- - 262

ISOCC
2012
ISOCC 2012

GND

VO-

VO+

50O
Term.

MB (0.25?6 m2)
LO source
( ~ 13GHz)

Buffer
matching

x24

V1
MA (0.25?4

Harmonic
M ixer

m2)

R
F

RF-SA

Tuning
part

CCB

MA

PDiss = 3.3V x 14mA = 46.2mW

DC Bias

(a)

Conversion loss:
~ 35dB @300GHz (estimated)

VTUNE

CBE
CTUNE

IEE = 14 mA

(b)

VEE (-3.3V)
Fig. 1. Simplified schematic diagram of the VCO. Output signal is signalended with internal termination of one output to 50 ohm.

integrated with the output buffer in a cascode structure. The

differential operation enables virtual grounds along the center
of the symmetric structure, which greatly reduces the
complexity of bias circuitry. Additional advantages of the
differential VCO are common-mode noise rejection and
differential oscillation output for the conventional Gilbert-cell
mixer. The oscillator core is composed of a pair of HBTs (MA)
commonly biased at the base. The core HBTs are 0.254 m2
in size with the bias current density for each device of 7
mA/m2. For power gain in output port and isolation of the
oscillation core, common-base output buffers (MB) were added.
The cascade configuration offers advantages of bias current
reuse and simplicity in layout. In a common-collector Colpitts
oscillator, the low-impedance collector of the core HBT tends
to increase the loop gain. Therefore, to obtain a low-impedance
emitter sharing the same bias current with the core HBTs, the
HBTs for the buffer (MB) are sized as 0.25  6 m2 with the
bias current density of 4.2 mA/m2 . The T-shaped buffer
matching circuits adjust the input impedance of the buffer stage
connecting the buffer to the core HBTs in the layout.
In this bias condition, collector-base capacitance CCB and
base-emitter capacitance CBE of the core HBTs are estimated to
be about 5 and 12 fF, respectively, from the s-parameters of the
HBT. As shown in the inset of Fig. 1, a Colpitts oscillator is an
LC oscillator where the feedback is taken from a capacitive
voltage divider. The ratio of feedback capacitors is an
important factor for the loop gain and is usually set from 1 to 2.
Although the frequency tuning of a conventional Colpitts VCO
is achieved with inductance control in the base of the core HBT,
in this design, one of the feedback capacitors is employed for

978-1-4673-2990-3/12/$31.00 2012 IEEE

Fig. 2. (a) Chip photograph of the VCO (730690 um2) and experimental
setup for VCO measurement. (b) Harmonically down-converted oscillation
output measured with an RF spectrum analyzer (RF-SA). Conversion loss of
the measurement setup is estimated as 35dB at 300 GHz.

the frequency tuning part. This configuration enables a simple

layout and reduces the quality factor Q degradation of the
oscillator core from the lossy varactor. The frequency tuning
part is composed of a diode-connected double-finger HBT
(0.253 m2) in reverse bias and interconnections. The
equivalent capacitance of the tuning part ranges from 10 to 18
fF with Q of about 15 at 300 GHz, where the ratio of feedback
capacitances is around one to one. Then, by loading inductance
(25 pH) in the oscillator core, the oscillation frequency is set at
around 300 GHz by LC resonance.
The interconnections were realized with the inverted
microstrip line (Inv-MSL) by using the topmost layer (M4) as
the ground and first interconnection metal (M1) as a signal line
to avoid parasitic inductance and power loss. The typical width
of the Inv-MSL is 4 m, of which loss is about 6.2 dB/mm and
the characteristic impedance is about 60 ohm. Although the
narrow width of the Inv-MSL introduces power loss, the
advantages of the short connection length and elimination of

-2- - 263

ISOCC
2012
ISOCC 2012

The fabricated VCO chip consumes 46.2 mW with VEE= 3.3 V as designed. The oscillation frequency of the VCO varies
by controlling the tuning voltage (VTUNE) as shown in Fig. 3(a).
VTUNE varies from VEE +0.5V to VEE +2.0V, which corresponds
to reverse bias voltage across the diode-connected HBT of 0 to
1.5 V. The measured oscillation frequency is around 310 GHz
with the frequency tuning range of about 10 GHz.

Oscillation frequency (GHz)

325

(a)
320

315

Five variations of the VCO were designed for different

oscillation center frequencies around the 300-GHz band. These
VCOs have an almost identical structure except for the shape
of the T-type buffer matching circuit. Fig. 3(b) shows the
measured output powers of the VCOs as a function of the
oscillation frequency. The VCO with the highest frequency can
oscillate up to 365 GHz. The measured single-ended output
power from the VCO is about -5 dBm at 310 GHz, which
agrees well with the simulated output power of -3 dBm,
excluding the loss of Inv-MSL to MSL transition. The
measured output power linearly decreases with frequency.
However, because the power loss of our measurement setup
increases in the high-frequency region and the power
calibration data is not supported especially at over 320 GHz,
we expect the actual output powers of the VCOs are, at least,
higher than the current measurement results.

310

Measurement
Simulation

305

300
0.5

1.0

1.5

2.0

VTUNE-VEE (V)
0

Output power (dBm)

(b)
-5

IV.

-10

The 300-GHz-band fundamental VCOs have been

demonstrated using the 0.25-m InP HBT process for
broadband wireless communications system. The VCOs exhibit
about -5-dBm output power and a 10-GHz frequency tuning
range in the 300-GHz band, consuming 46.2 mW. The
oscillation frequency of the VCO can be extended up to the
360-GHz region with the same circuit structure. The VCO can
be widely utilized for the 300-GHz-band integrated wireless
transceivers.

-15

*excluding 35-dB
estimated power loss
-20
310

320

330

340

350

360

370

Oscillation frequency (GHz)

Fig. 3. (a) Measured and simulated oscillation frequencies as a function of
VCO tuning voltage and (b) measured oscillation output powers of VCOs at
different oscillation frequencies.

REFERENCES
[1]
[2]

via structure are significant. One of the differential outputs was

connected to the RF probe PAD for the on-wafer measurement
using an Inv-MSL to MSL transition while the differential
output was internally terminated to the 50 ohm resistor.
III.

[3]

MEASUREMENT RESULTS

Fig. 2(a) shows a photograph of the fabricated chip and a

schematic diagram of the measurement setup. The on-wafer
measurement was performed with a Cascade WR-3 waveguide
probe and a VNA extender as the harmonic mixer. By
supplying the LO signal around 13 GHz to the 24th harmonic
mixer, the output signal around 300 GHz is down-converted to
the low-frequency band and measured with an RF spectrum
analyzer (RF-SA). The spectrum in Fig. 2(b) shows the
frequency down-converted VCO output signal. The power loss
and conversion loss of the measurement setup was not
precisely calibrated and the estimated total measurement loss
based on the specification of the devices is about 35 dB.

978-1-4673-2990-3/12/$31.00 2012 IEEE

CONCLUSION

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]

-3- - 264

J. Wells, Faster than fiber: The future of multi-G/s wireless, IEEE

Microw. Mag., vol. 10, no. 3, pp. 104112, May 2009.
C. H. Doan, S. Emami, D. A. Sobel, A. M. Niknejad, and R. W.
Brodersen, Design Considerations for 60 GHz CMOS Radios, IEEE
Comm. Mag., vol. 42, no. 12, pp. 132140, Dec. 2004.
A. Hirata, R. Yamaguchi, T. Kosugi, H. Takahashi, K. Murata, T.
Nagatsuma, N. Kukutsu, Y. Kado, N. Iai, S. Okabe, S. Kimura, H.
Ikegawa, H. Nishikawa, T. Nakayama, and T. Inada, 10-Gbit/s
Wireless Link Using InP HEMT MMICs for Generating 120-GHz-Band
Millimeter-Wave Signal, IEEE Trans. Microw. Thoery Tech., vol. 57,
no. 5, pp. 11021109, May 2009.
H.-J. Song, and T. Nagatsuma, Present and Future of Terahertz
Communications, IEEE Trans. THz Sci and Tech, vol. 1, no. 1, pp.
256263, Sep. 2011.
A. Hirata, T. Kosugi, N. Meisl, T. Shibata, and T. Nagatsuma, High
directivity photonic emitter using photodiode module integrated with
HEMT amplifier for 10-Gbit/s wireless link, IEEE Trans. Microw.
Theory Tech, vol. 52, no. 8, pp. 18431850, Aug. 2004.
T. Nagatsuma, H. J. Song, Y. Fujimoto, K. Miyake, A. Hirata, K. Ajito,
A. Wakatsuki, T. Furuta, N. Kukutsu, and Y. Kado, Giga-bit wireless
link using 300400 GHz bands, Proc. IEEE Int. Topical Meeting
Microw. Photon. (MWP), Oct. 2009, pp. 1416.
H.-J. Song, K. Ajito, A. Wakatsuki, Y. Muramoto, N. Kukutsu, Y. Kado,
and T. Nagatsuma, Terahertz Wireless Communication Link at 300
GHz, Proc. IEEE Int. Topical Meeting Microw. Photon. (MWP), Oct.
2010, pp. 4245.

ISOCC
2012
ISOCC 2012

[8]

R. Lai, X. B. Mei, W. R. Deal, W. Yoshida, Y. M. Kim, P. H. Liu, J.

Lee, J. Uyeda, V. Radisic, M. Lange, T. Gaier, L. Samoska, A. Fung,
Sub 50 nm InP HEMT Device with Fmax Greater than 1 THz, Proc.
Int. Electron Devices Meeting (IEDM), Dec. 2007, pp. 1012.
[9] M. Urteaga, M. Seo, J. Hacker, Z. Griffith, A. Young, R. Pierson, P.
Rowell, A. Skalare, and M. J. W. Rodwell, InP HBT integrated circuit
technology for terahertz frequencies, Proc. IEEE Compound Semicond.
Integr. Circuit Symp. (CSICS), Oct. 2010, pp. 14.
[10] I. Kallfass, H.Massler, A. Leuther, A. Tessmann, and M. Schlechtweg,
A 210 GHz dual-gate FET mixer MMIC with >2 dB conversion gain,
high LO-to-RF isolation, and low LO-drive requirements, IEEE
Microw. Wireless Compon. Lett., vol. 18, no. 8, pp. 557559, Aug. 2008.
[11] V. Radisic, W. R. Deal, K. M. K. H. Leong, X. Mei, W. Yoshida, P. H.
Liu, J. Uyeda, A. Fung, L. Samoska, and T. Gaier, A 10-mW
Submillimeter-Wave Solid-State Power-Amplifier Module, IEEE
Trans. Microw. Theory Tech., vol. 58, no. 7, pp. 19031909, Dec. 2010.
[12] V. Radisic, X. Mei, W. Deal, W. Yoshida, P. Liu, J. Uyeda, M. Barsky,
L. Samoska, A. Fung, T. Gaier, and R. Lai, Demonstration of submillimeter wave fundamental oscillators using 35-nm InP HEMT

978-1-4673-2990-3/12/$31.00 2012 IEEE

[13]

[14]

[15]

[16]

[17]

-4- - 265

technology, IEEE Microw. Wireless Compon. Lett., vol. 17, no. 3, pp.
223225, Mar. 2007.
M. Seo, M. Urteaga, A. Young, V. Jain, Z. Griffith, J. Hacker, P.
Rowell, R. Pierson, and M. Rodwell, >300 GHz fixed-frequency and
voltage-controlled fundamental oscillators in an InP DHBT process,
IEEE MTT-S Int. Microw. Symp. Dig., May 2010, pp. 272275.
M. Seo, M. Urteaga, M. Rodwell, and M. Choe, A 300 GHz PLL in an
InP HBT technology, IEEE MTT-S Int. Microw. Symp. Dig., Jun.
2011, pp. 14.
B. Razavi, A 300-GHz fundamental oscillator in 65-nm CMOS
technology, IEEE J. Solid-State Circuits, vol. 46, no. 4, pp. 894903,
Apr. 2011.
E. Seok, C. Cao, D. Shim, D. Arenas, D. Tanner, C. Hung, and K. O.
Kenneth, A 410 GHz CMOS push-push oscillator with an on-chip
patch antenna, Proc. Int. Solid-State Circuits Conf. (ISSCC), Feb. 2008,
pp. 472473.
M. Asada, S. Suzuki, and N. Kishimoto, Resonant tunneling diodes for
sub-terahertz and terahertz oscillators, Jpn. J. Appl. Phys., vol. 47, no. 6,
pp. 43754384, Jun. 2008.

ISOCC
2012
ISOCC 2012