T ERAHERTZ W IRELESS C OMMUNICATIONS
A 16-QAM 45-Gbps 7-m Wireless Link Using InP HEMT LNA
and GaAs SBD Mixers at 220-GHz-Band
Yukun Li, Yong Zhang * , Chengkai Wu, Jianhan Cui, Huali Zhu, Bo Yan
School of Electronic Science and Engineering, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu 611731, China
*
The corresponding author, email: yongzhang@uestc.edu.cn
Abstract: This paper presents a 220-GHz-band 7-m
wireless link with a 45-Gbps transmission data rate by
using 16 quadrature amplitude modulation (16-QAM).
Super-heterodyne transceiver modules are developed
for transmission and reception of the modulated sig-
nals, which consist of a Schottky barrier diodes (SBD)
based sub-harmonic mixer (SHM), an InP HEMT low
noise amplifier (LNA), a waveguide band-pass filter
(BPF), and a 108-GHz local oscillator (LO) multiplier
chain. The transmitter features a peak transmit power
of 1.41 dBm, and the IF frequency varies from 5 GHz
to 20 GHz. Besides, the receiver features a conver-
sion gain of 9.3 dB in average and a noise temperature
of 3052.8 K. The measured results indicate that the
transceiver modules enable data transmission of a 45-
Gbps 16-QAM signal with Signal-Noise-Ratio (SNR)
from 11.59 dB to 15.36 dB in a 7-m line-of-sight chan-
nel.
Keywords: wireless link; 16 quadrature amplitude
modulation (16-QAM); super-heterodyne transceiver
modules; sub-harmonic mixer (SHM)
I. INTRODUCTION
In recent years, wireless capacity is increasing at a
prodigious rate, the IP traffic is exploding all over the
world in 2018 [1, 2] and there are more than 11 billion
mobile connected devices by the Internet of Things
(IoT) paradigm in 2020 [3]. Obviously, the increas-
ing requirement for wireless capacity brings signifi-
Received: Jan. 22, 2021
Revised: Mar. 20, 2021
Editor: Xianbin Yu
China Communications · May 2021
Authorized licensed use limited to: National Chiao Tung Univ.. Downloaded on August 07,2021 at 17:53:38 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
cant challenge to the existing wireless communication
technologies. Although the commercial 5th generation
mobile networks (5G) at millimeter-wave frequencies
can support data rates of more than 10 Gbps in the
future [4], most of applications beyond 10 Gbps still
need to depend on optical fiber communication [5].
However, optical fiber communication technology is
difficult to support application in high-speed mobile
scenario. In this background, wireless communication
technologies using carrier frequency above 100 GHz
(or call it as terahertz communication) will be avail-
able to support application with more than 100 Gbps
and provide abundant available spectrum [6, 7]. It is
expected that high-speed terahertz wireless link will
play a central role in future wireless communication
systems for its high capacity and security, and it will
become a decisive factor in the competition of science
and technology.
Generally, terahertz communication is mainly ad-
dressed by photonics technologies [8–12] and active
electronics devices [2, 13, 14]. Photonics technolo-
gies have been proven a promising solution, which
features the capability of generate broadband terahertz
signals with frequency tunability and a high transmis-
sion speed can be achieved by optical modulation. In
[10], this work achieved a 100-Gbps data rates by us-
ing photonic sub-harmonic mixer and 16-QAM mod-
ulation. Besides, in [12], this work achieved a 612.65-
Gbps data rates by using photonic sub-harmonic mixer
and 64-QAM OFDM modulation. However, the pho-
tonics devices are limited by their own low photoelec-
trical conversion efficient, and cannot meet the need
of long-distance data transmission. On the other hand,
255
 LO Multiplier Chain
18GHz
108GHz SHM BPF
X2 X3
IF signal (5~20 GHz)
45Gbps Data
16-QAM coding and
PC modulating
Figure 1. Block diagram of the 220-GHz-band wireless link.
with the rapid development of the semiconductor tech-
nology such as InP HBT and InP HEMT [15, 16], ac-
tive solid-state electronics technologies shown great
advantages on their high output power and high in-
tegration especially from 0.1 THz to 1 THz [17].
Some representative developments are including a 25-
Gbps wireless link operating at 220 GHz in 50-nm
mHEMT MMIC technology [13], and a 120-Gbps
wireless communication link working at 300GHz in
80-nm HEMT MMIC technology [2]. Besides, [14]
employed a combination of a photonic and electronic
technologies, and this wireless link achieved a data
rate of 100-Gbps. Therefore, wireless communica-
tion system from 200 GHz to 300 GHz is available to
meet the requirement of the wireless capacity beyond
10 Gbps.
In this paper, a 45-Gbps 16-QAM wireless link
working at 220-GHz-band is reported. A super-
heterodyne front-end is designed for transmission
and reception of the modulated signals by using
component-based architecture for its great conve-
nience on modifying and packaging. Circuits includ-
ing LO multiplier, SHM, BPF, and LNA are pack-
Doubler
LNA Horn antenna
SHM BPF
Horn antenna
Tripler IF in
Figure 2. Photograph of transmitter and receiver.
aged as waveguide modules. This paper is organized
256
Authorized licensed use limited to: National Chiao Tung Univ.. Downloaded on August 07,2021 at 17:53:38 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
LO Multiplier Chain
18GHz
Antenna Antenna
LNA LNA BPF SHM 108GHz
7m Channel
X3 X2
221-236 GHz
IF signal (5~20 GHz)
16-QAM decoding and 45Gbps Data
demodulating PC
IFA
as follows: In Section II, the architecture of wire-
less link and the performance of each module are de-
scribed, and the link budget calculation of the pro-
posed transceiver is introduced. The design process
and measured results of the critical modules for the
proposed transceiver are introduced in Section III. In
Section IV, wireless link experiments with 16-QAM
modulation are given. Finally, conclusion is drawn in
Section V.
II. OVERVIEW OF THE WIRELESS LINK
2.1 Transceiver Architecture
The principle block diagram of wireless link is shown
in Figure 1. This wireless link is composed of a
transceiver and a signal processing platform, which
enables transmission and reception of the modulated
signals, the IF signal is range from 5 GHz to 20 GHz.
As shown in Figure 2, super-heterodyne frequency
mixing architecture is adopted in this transceiver, the
modulated IF signal is carried out up or down fre-
quency conversion by using GaAs Schottky barrier
diodes (SBDs) based SHM, which is driven by a W-
band ×6 multiplier chain. This frequency multiplier
IF out
chain consists of a SBDs based tripler and a doubler
amplifier stage. This doubler amplifier stage has a 4.6-
W power consumption with a 4-dBm input signal and
Tripler it provides a 21-dBm driving power after connecting
BPF SHM
a 4-dB attenuator for the frequency tripler at 36 GHz.
LNA
Additionally, this tripler reaches an output power of 5
dBm at 108 GHz with a 2.5 % conversion efficiency.
Doubler
At the transmitter side, the modulated IF signal from
5 GHz to 20 GHz is up converted by using SHM, the
carrier wave range from 221 GHz to 236 GHz is fil-
tered by a rectangular waveguide BPF and then am-
plified by a LNA module. The measured maximum
output power of the transmitter is 1.41 dBm at 226
China Communications · May 2021
GHz, as shown in Figure 3. For receiver, the received Table 1. The performance of the wireless link.
signal is down converted by using a same architecture
Symbol Quantity Value
before being delivered to the demodulation platform,
the carrier wave range from 221 GHz to 236 GHz is f0 Center frequency 228.5 GHz
first amplified by using a same LNA module, and then Pout Maximum output power 1.41 dBm
is down-converted through a same mixing stage. Be- TR Noise temperature of receiver 3052.8 K
sides, a same waveguide BPF is connected between BW 0 Bandwidth of transmitter 15 GHz
the SHM and LNA. Finally, the carrier wave range N Modulation index 16
from 5 GHz to 20 GHz is finally amplified to by an G Antenna gain 25 dBi
IF amplifier module. The measured conversion gain D Link distance 7m
of the receiver is 9.3 dB in average within 221 GHz Lp Path loss of LOS channel 96.5 dB
to 236 GHz, as shown in Figure 4, and the calculated R Transmission binary data rate 45 Gbps
noise figure of receiver is 10.8 dB in average within Eb /N 0 Receive signal noise rate per bit 10.1dB
221 GHz to 236 GHz. SNR Signal noise ratio 14.87 dB

"
ity code combined with OFDM system is employed.
At first, the PRBS sequence is translated as LPDC-
16-QAM symbols, which has an improved transmis-
!"#$%&'()'(*+,-.

sion efficiency and coding gain. Then, IFFT is used

! to translate the the frequency domain symbols to time
domain. Next, a normal cyclic prefix (CP) is inserted
&
to reduce the impact on the inter-symbol interference
(ISI). At the receiver side, the received signal is con-
verted as IF signal. Then, IFFT is used to realize
&" OFDM demodulation after CP is removed. Then, the
! " # $ %! % %" %# %$
!"#$"%&'()*+, user data is recoverd back by 16-QAM de-maping and
LDPC de-coding.
Figure 3. Measured output power of transmitter.

2.3 Link Budget

20
In order to build up an available short-range wireless
15
link by using the proposed tranceiver, WR-3 horn an-
tennas with a gain of 25 dBi are connected in front of
Conversion gain(dB)

10
the terahertz front-end. Then the link budget analysis
5 of the proposed front-end is characterized by Signal-
Noise-Ratio (SNR), which can be calculated by
0

S Eb Rb
-5 SN R = 10 · lg = 10 · lg · . (1)
N N0 W
-10 Where S and N represent the average power of the out-
220 222 224 226 228 230 232 234 236 238
Frequency(GHz) put signal and noise, Eb /N 0 is SNR per bit, Rb and W
are the transmitting bit rates per second and the signal
Figure 4. Measured down- conversion gain of receiver.
bandwidth, respectively. Our assumption is a 45-Gbps
16-QAM signal in 15-GHz bandwidth, and the cen-
tered frequency is 228.5 GHz. In this calculation, the
2.2 Digital Signal Processing (DSP) Routine
maximum link distance can be calculated while the re-
The digital signal processing (DSP) routine is shown quired SNR is 15 dB. First, the maximum link distance
in Figure 5. At the transmitter side, low density par- (D) can be defined by the maximum loss of the light-

China Communications · May 2021 257

Authorized licensed use limited to: National Chiao Tung Univ.. Downloaded on August 07,2021 at 17:53:38 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
 LPDC bit QAM
PRBS
codeing interleaving mapping
LPDC bit QAM
PRBS
decodeing deinterleaving demapping
Figure 5. The DSP routine of (a) transmitter,(b) receiver.
of-sight (LOS) channel as follows:
D = 10Lp /20 · c/(4πf0 ).
Where c represents the speed of the light, and the cen-
ter frequency (f 0 ) is 228.5 GHz. Then, the maximum
loss of the light-of-sight (LOS) channel is calculated
by:
Lp = PT + GT − PR − L0 + GR − LA .
Where PR and PT are the received power and the
transmit power, GT and GR are gain of horn anten-
nas in front of the front-end, LA represents additional
loss of wireless link and antenna misalignment, which
is about 1 dB in both the transmitter and receiver. Be-
sides, in order to accurately analysis the channel per-
formance range from 200 to 300 GHz, the effects of
fog and rain attenuation should be taken into account
[18–21], the atmospheric attenuation (L0 ) under clean
sky and heavy rain is characterized as 3dB/Km and
23dB/Km [13], respectively. The received power (PR )
can be calculated through (4) and (5) as follows:
PR = Eb /N0 + (10 · lg (k · R · TR ) + 30).
S/N = (Eb /N0 ) · (Rb /W ).
Where k is the Boltzmann constant (1.38×1023 J/K),
and the noise temperature (T R ) of the receiver can be
calculated by
TR = TLN A + (Tmixer − 1)/GLN A .
WhereT LN A and T mixer represent the noise tempera-
ture of LNA and SHM. The noise temperature intro-
duced by LNA and SHM are 2958 K and 950 K by
using Y-factor measured method, and the calculated
T R is 3052.8 K. As shown in Table 1, this transceiver
258
Authorized licensed use limited to: National Chiao Tung Univ.. Downloaded on August 07,2021 at 17:53:38 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
Serial to Parallel to
IFFT Add CP D/A Transmitter
parallel serial
(a)
Parallel to Serial to
FFT remove CP A/D Receiver
Serial parallel
(b)
can support 45 Gbps signal (16QAM, 15 Gbaud) with
a maximum loss of the light-of-sight (LOS) channel of
(2) 96.5 dB. This means that the calculated maximum link
distance of is 7 m (SNR=14.87 dB).
III. CRITICAL CIRCUITS DESIGN FOR
WIRELESS LINK
(3)
3.1 GaAs SBD Based SHM
In this wireless link, SHM plays an important role in
the super-heterodyne transceiver for signal generator
and detector. A sub-harmonic mixing structure is em-
ployed for mixer design, which can sharply reduce the
requirement of high frequency LO signal. This SHM
is designed by using anti-parallel GaAs Schottky bar-
rier diodes (SBDs), and passive linear parasitic pa-
rameters are extracted by using 3D full-wave electro-
magnetic simulation after considering all of the layers
and materials of the SBDs, as shown in Figure 6(a).
Combined with an intrinsic nonlinear SPICE model,
(4) a complete SBD model is developed [22], where the
junction capacitance ( Cj 0 ), series resistance (Rs ), re-
verse breakdown voltage (V j ) and reverse saturation
(5)
current (I s ) are 1.42 fF, 12 ohms, 0.6 V and 1.75 fA,
as shown in Figure 6(b). This sub-harmonic mixer is
designed in microstrip environment on 50-um quartz
substrate, both of the LO signal and received RF signal
are coupled to the substrate by using an E-plane probe
(6) transition, as shown in Figure 7(a). Figure 7(b) shows
the measured conversion loss of the SHM. When LO
frequency is fixed at 108 GHz with power 5 dBm,
the measured average conversion loss is 8.1 dB from
198 GHz to 236 GHz. Besides, by using the Y factor
method, the measured noise temperature of the SHM
is 950 K in average from 221 GHz to 236 GHz.
China Communications · May 2021
 WR-4.3

RF
GaAs substrate

IF SBDs

(a)
DC-grounding

DIODE1
Model=DIODEM
2
DIODEM 1 3
Cj0=1.42 fF PORT1 4 PORT2
Rs=12 ohms
Vj=0.6 V DIODE2
Is=1.75 fA Model=DIODEM WR-8

(b)
LO
(a)
Figure 6. (a)The 3-D electromagnetic model of planar
GaAs SBD (b) The SPICE model of planar GaAs SBD.
14

12

3.2 220 GHz BPF

Conversion Loss(dB)

10

8
A 220-GHz waveguide band-pass filter is designed for 6
frequency election in transceiver. The standardized 4

waveguide WR-4 BPF is designed by using Cheby- 2

shev filter matrix synthesize technique, and the struc- 0

195 200 205 210 215 220 225 230 235 240
Frequency(GHz)
ture of nine-pole rectangular resonant cavities is em-
ployed. Besides, ultra-sophisticated machining tech- (b)
nique with 5-um precision is employed in order to re-
Figure 7. (a) The GaAs SBD SHM (b) Measured conversion
duce the fabrication tolerance. As shown in Figure 8,
loss of SHM.
the measured center frequency is 220 GHz with a 40-
GHz 3-dB bandwidth, and the minimum loss is 0.38
dB at 220 GHz. Besides, the return loss and sideband
rejection is respectively better than 20 dB and 40 dB.
0

3.3 220 GHz InP HEMT LNA

-20

A low noise amplifier in InP HEMT technology is de-

S-Parameters(dB)

signed for signal amplification in the transmitter and -40

receiver, and it adopts a four-stage common-source

configuration, as shown in Figure 9(a). The matching -60
Simulated(S21)

Simulated(S11)

network is designed for minimum noise matching and Measured(S21)

Measured(S11)

circuit stabilization in the first stage, while the next -80

three stages focus on high gain and taking into account 160 180 200 220 240 260

the noise. Finally, the LNA MMIC is packaged as a Frequency(GHz)

module, both the input and output RF signal are cou-

pled to the main substrate by using an E-plane probe, Figure 8. 220 GHz rectangular waveguide BPF and mea-
and gold wire bonding is employed to connect to LNA sured S-parameter.
MMIC. DC power supply circuit has been embedded

China Communications · May 2021 259

Authorized licensed use limited to: National Chiao Tung Univ.. Downloaded on August 07,2021 at 17:53:38 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
in the module. The measured results show that this
LNA MMIC get a gain of about 12.9 dB in average
from 221 GHz to 236 GHz, as shown in Figure 9(b).
Besides, the measured noise temperature by the Y fac-
tor method is 2958 K in average from 221 GHz to 236
GHz.
Vg1
23.90%, 17.06%, 26.01%, and 26.18%, respectively.
A 3.98 bit/s/Hz spectrum efficiency has been real-
ized in our 220-GHz-band wireless link, and Table 2
gives a comparison with previous published terahertz
wireless links at 220-GHz-band. Besides, a cascaded
MMIC power amplifier with higher output power will
Vg2 Vg3 Vg4 help us to achieve higher SNR in the future.

RF in RF out

Vd1 Vd2 Vd3 Vd4

(a)

20 3

18

16 2
Conversion Loss(dB)

14

12 1

10

8 0

4 -1

0 -2
200 205 210 215 220 225 230 235 240
Frequency(GHz)

(b)

Figure 9. (a) The schematic of 4-stage InP HEMT LNA, (b)

Measured small-signal gain of LNA.
Figure 10. Photograph of 220-GHz wireless link.

IV. WIRELESS DATA TRANSMISSION EX- 2

1.5 SNR=11.85 dB
2

1.5
SNR=12.28 dB
2

1.5
SNR=11.59 dB
2

1.5 SNR=12.43 dB

PERIMENTS 1

0.5
1

0.5
1

0.5
1

0.5
Quadrature

Quadrature
Quadrature

Quadrature

0 0 0 0

-0.5 -0.5 -0.5 -0.5

-1 -1 -1

The transmitter and receiver modules are placed in a

-1

-1.5 -1.5 -1.5

Subband 1 Subband 2
-1.5
Subband 3 Subband 4
-2 -2 -2 -2
-2 -1 0 1 2 -2 -1 0 1 2 -2 -1 0 1 2 -2 -1 0 1 2

7-m setup for short-range wireless data transmission

In-pha se In-phase In-phase In-phase

-40
40
Power spectral density (dBm/Hz)

2 2
2

1.5 SNR=15.36 dB SNR=11.70 dB 1.5

SNR=11.64 dB -60

experiment, as shown in Figure 10. The measurement

1.5

1 1
1 -80
0.5 0.5
0.5
Quadrature

Quadrature
Quadrature

-100
is carried out in room temperature. The data trans- -0.5
0

-0.5
0

-0.5
0

-120
-1
-1 -1 -140
mission test is carried out with a 45-Gbps data rate -1.5

-2
Subband 5
-1.5

-2
Subband 6
-1.5

-2
Subband 7 -160
0 5 10 15
Frequency(GHz)
20
-2 -1 0 1 2 -2 -1 0 1 2 -2 -1 0 1 2
Rx signal spectrum (45Gbps)
and 16-QAM format. To generate a wideband 16-
In-phase In-phase In-phase

QAM IF signal, a Keysight arbitrary waveform gen- Figure 11. Measured constellation of 16-QAM 45-Gbit/s
erator (AWG) at 80 GSps is used. A Keysight digi- signal after 7-m transmission in at 220-GHz-band.
tal storage oscilloscope (DSO) is used as the receiver
of the IF signal. The measured results show that the
demodulated signals are divided as 7 sub-bands from V. CONCLUSION
3.4 GHz to 14.7 GHz, and the bandwidth of sub-
band is characterized as 1.62 GHz. The correspond- This paper reports a 220-GHz-band wireless link over
ing constellations are shown in Figure 11, and the cal- distances up to 7 m. This link is employed a super-
culated SNR values from the constellations are 11.85 heterodyne front-end and a 16 quadrature amplitude
dB, 12.28 dB, 11.59 dB, 12.43 dB, 15.36 dB, 11.70 modulation. The transceiver is consisted of SHM,
dB, and 11.64 dB, respectively. The corresponding LNA, LO multiplier chain, BPF and horn anten-
calculated EVM values are 25.55%, 24.32%, 26.33%, nas. The feasibility of 45-Gbps wireless transmis-

260 China Communications · May 2021

Authorized licensed use limited to: National Chiao Tung Univ.. Downloaded on August 07,2021 at 17:53:38 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
 Table 2. Comparison of the wireless link around 220 GHz.

Freq Data Rate Modulation BW Efficiency Pout D

Ref Technology
(GHz) (Gbps) Scheme (GHz) (Bit/s/Hz) (dBm) (m)
[2] 80-nm InP HEMT 290 120 16-QAM 30 4 6 9.8
[13] 50-nm InP mHEMT 220 25 ASK 34 0.74 0 10
[14] UTC PD+35-nm InP mHEMT 237.5 100 16-QAM 25 4 - 20
[23] 130 nm SiGe 240 25 BPSK 25 1 -3 0.11
[24] 130 nm SiGe 230 95 16-QAM 23.75 4 1.5 1
[25] 35-nm InP mHEMT 240 96 8PSK 32 3 0 40
Our
SHM+ InP HEMT 228.5 45 16-QAM 11.3 3.98 1.41 7
work

sion was also experimentally verified, and the devel-
oped wireless link has successfully demonstrated 16-
QAM transmission with a data rate of 45 Gbps in an
11.3-GHz bandwidth. Besides, its spectrum efficiency
achieves 3.98 bit/s/Hz, which is better than that of
most current links. Finally, this research would lay
a foundation for the future analysis of 6th generation
(6G) wireless communication.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
This work was supported by National Natural Science
Foundation of China (No. 61871072).
References
[1] C. Systems and Inc, “Cisco visual networking index: Fore-
cast and trends, 2017-2022.”
[2] H. Hamada, T. Tsutsumi, et al., “300-ghz-band 120 gpbs
wireless front-end based on inp-hemt pas and mixers,” IEEE
Journal of Solid-State Circuits, vol. PP, no. 99, 2020, pp. 1–
1.
[3] I. F. Akyildiz, H. Chong, et al., “Combating the distance
problem in the millimeter wave and terahertz frequency
bands,” IEEE Communications Magazine, vol. 56, no. 6,
2018, pp. 102–108.
[4] J. G. Andrews, S. Buzzi, et al., “What will 5g be?” IEEE
Signal Processing Magazine, vol. 32, no. 6, 2014, pp. 1065–
1082.
[5] A. Gomez, K. Shi, et al., “Design and demonstration of
a 400 gb/s indoor optical wireless communications link,”
Journal of Lightwave Technology, 2016.
[6] T. S. Rappaport, “Wireless communications and applica-
tions above 100 ghz: Opportunities and challenges for 6g
and beyond,” IEEE Access, vol. 7, 2019, pp. 78 729–78 757.
[7] Siegel, Peter, et al., “Terahertz technology.” IEEE Transac-
tions on Microwave Theory and Techniques, vol. 50, no. 3,
2002, pp. 910–910.
[8] S. Jia, X. Pang, et al., “0.4 thz photonic-wireless link with
106 gb/s single channel bitrate,” Journal of Lightwave Tech-
nology, 2018, pp. 1–1.
[9] S. Koenig, D. Lopez-Diaz, et al., “Wireless sub-thz commu-
nication system with high data rate enabled by rf photonics
and active mmic technology,” in 2014 IEEE Photonics Con-
ference (IPC), 2014.
[10] V. K. Chinni, P. Latzel, et al., “Single channel 100 gbit/s
transmission using iii-v utc-pd photodiodes for future ieee
802.15.3d wireless links in the 300 ghz band,” Electronics
Letters, vol. 54, no. 10, 2018, pp. 638–640.
[11] S. Wang, Z. Lu, et al., “26.8m thz wireless transmission of
probabilistic shaping 16-qam-ofdm signals,” APL Photon-
ics, vol. 5, no. 5, 2020, p. 056105.
[12] S. W. W. L. Shi Jia, Lu Zhang, M. Qiao, et al., “2x300
gbit/s line rate ps-64qam-ofdm thz photonic-wireless trans-
mission,” Journal of Lightwave Technology, vol. PP, no. 99,
2020, pp. 1–1.
[13] I. Kallfass, J. Antes, et al., “All active mmic-based wire-
less communication at 220 ghz,” IEEE Transactions on Ter-
ahertz Science and Technology, vol. 1, no. 2, 2011, pp. 477–
487.
[14] J. A. S Koenig1, D. Lopez-Diaz, F. Boes, et al., “Wireless
sub-thz communication system with high data rate,” Nature
Photonics, vol. 7, no. 12, 2013, pp. 977–981.
[15] a. H. C. a. A. B. V. Jain, JC Rode, “1.0 thz fmax inp dhbts
in a refractory emitter and self-aligned base process for re-
duced base access resistance,” in 69th Device Research Con-
ference, 2011.
[16] J. C. Rode, H. W. Chiang, et al., “Indium phosphide het-
erobipolar transistor technology beyond 1-thz bandwidth,”
IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices, vol. 62, no. 9,
2015, pp. 2779–2785.
[17] M. Urteaga, Z. Griffth, et al., “Inp hbt technologies for
thz integrated circuits,” Proceedings of the IEEE, vol. PP,
no. 99, 2017, pp. 1–17.
[18] S. Paine, “The am atmospheric model,” 2010.
[19] R. Itur, “Recommendation itu-r p.838-3 specific attenuation
model for rain for use in prediction methods,” 2005.
[20] “Attenuation due to clouds and fog,” 2009.
[21] J. Hansryd, Y. Li, et al., “Long term path attenuation mea-
surement of the 71-76 ghz band in a 70/80 ghz microwave
link,” in 4th Eur. Conf. on Antennas and Propagation (Eu-
CAP), 2010.
[22] J. Cui, Y. Zhang, et al., “A 220 ghz brlooadband sub-
harmonic mixer based on global design method,” IEEE Ac-
cess, vol. PP, 2019, pp. 1–1.

China Communications · May 2021 261

Authorized licensed use limited to: National Chiao Tung Univ.. Downloaded on August 07,2021 at 17:53:38 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
[23] E. M. Hussein, M. Andrea, et al., “Wideband 240-ghz trans-
mitter and receiver in bicmos technology with 25gpbs data
rate,” IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits, vol. 53, no. 9,
2018, pp. 2532–2542.
[24] P. Rodriguez-Vazquez, J. Grzyb, et al., “A 16-qam 100-gb/s
1-m wireless link with an evm of 17% at 230 ghz in an
sige technology,” IEEE Microwave and Wireless Compo-
nents Letters, vol. 29, no. 4, 2019, pp. 297–299.
[25] F. Boes, T. Messinger, et al., “Ultra-broadband mmic-based
wireless link at 240 ghz enabled by 64gs/s dac,” in 39th In-
ternational Conference on Infrared, Millimeter, and Tera-
hertz waves (IRMMW-THz), 2014.
Biographies
Yukun Li received the B.S. degree
from the ChongQing University in 2015.
He is currently pursuing the Ph.D. de-
gree since September, 2017 at Univer-
sity of Electronic Science and Technology
of China (UESTC), majoring in Electro-
magnetic Field and Microwave Technol-
ogy. His current research interests include
millimeter-wave and terahertz monolithic integrated circuit design
and modeling of InP heterojunction bipolar transistors.
Yong Zhang received the B.S., M.S., and
Ph.D. degrees from University of Elec-
tronic Science and Technology of China
(UESTC), Chengdu, China in 1999, 2001,
and 2004, respectively. He was invited
as a visiting scholar of Illinois Institute of
Technology, USA, in 2009-2010. He has
been working in the field of RF circuits
for 18 years since he entered the University of Electronic Science
and Technology of China as a Master Student. He is now a pro-
fessor in the same university because of his outstanding research
achievements. He has published more than 100 journal and con-
ference papers. He has applied 13 patents and five of them got
the authorization. His current research interests include the design
and application of passive and active components at RF frequen-
cies, Solid state Terahertz technology, etc.
262
Authorized licensed use limited to: National Chiao Tung Univ.. Downloaded on August 07,2021 at 17:53:38 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
Chengkai Wu received the B.S. de-
gree and M.S. degree from the Univer-
sity of Electronic Science and Technol-
ogy of China (UESTC), chengdu, China,
in 2015 and 2018, separately. He is cur-
rently pursuing the Ph.D. degree with the
UESTC, majoring in electromagnetic field
and microwave technology. His current
research interests include microwave circuit theory and technol-
ogy, millimeter-wave and terahertz integrated circuits and systems.
Jianhang Cui received the B.S. de-
gree from Zhengzhou University of Aero-
nautics, Zhengzhou, China, in 2014. At
present, he is pursuing the Ph.D. de-
gree since September, 2016 at University
of Electronic Science and Technology of
China (UESTC), Chengdu, China, ma-
joring in Electromagnetic Field and Mi-
crowave Technology. His current research interests include mil-
limeter wave circuit theory and technology, mm-wave and tera-
hertz integrated circuits and systems.
huali Zhu received the B.S. degree from
the University of Electronic Science and
Technology of China, chengdu, China,
in 2017. He is currently pursuing the
Ph.D. degree with the University of Elec-
tronic Science and Technology of China,
Chengdu, China, majoring in electronic
science and technology. His current re-
search interests include microwave/millimeter wave circuit the-
ory and technology, mm-wave and terahertz integrated circuits and
systems.
Bo Yan received the B.S. and M.S.
degrees in electromagnetic field and mi-
crowave techniques, and the Ph.D. degree
from the University of Electronic Sci-
ence and Technology of China, Chengdu,
China, in 1991, 1994, and 1998, respec-
tively. His current research interests in-
clude microwave and millimeter-wave hy-
brid integrated circuit and MCM technology.
China Communications · May 2021