A 16-Gbps high-speed OOK modulator for millimeter-wave chip-to-chip communications

Abstract

This thesis presents a millimeter-wave frequency band operating OOK modulator for wireless chip-to-chip data communication. The chip-to-chip data communication can be explained with several characteristics. A data with very large data rate is a typical type of data that is processed in the short-ranged chip-to-chip interconnection. Also, highly efficient system in the aspect of power dissipation is required with very small footprint of the system. Currently, the inter-chip interconnection is achieved through electrical wires connecting pins of the chips of interest. The current inter-chip interconnection system encountered problems of limited data rate processed per wire, large area consumed by the interconnection-wires and I/O pins. To replace the electrical wires for the interconnection between chips, capacitive and inductive coupling and optical interconnection attracted attention over the years. Due to poor communication distance and large power dissipation, both methods are inappropriate for the inter-chip data communication application. The wireless inter-chip interconnect is drawing attention for a suitable alternative. If the performance of the wireless inter-chip interconnect can come close to the performance of the current state-of-the-art inter-chip interconnect, it would be able to replace the current system, being a future inter-chip interconnect solution. The thesis proposes an OOK modulator that have broad bandwidth characteristic which allows the modulator to process data with very high data rate. It operates with low power consumption enhancing the energy efficiency. These are the critical performance measures for the inter-chip data communication. The OOK modulator assures the communication distance of 50mm which is adequate for the inter-chip interconnect application while having a very small footprint of the chip. Thus, this OOK modulator is suitable for the transmitter of the future wireless inter-chip data communication system. ...