A 10-Bit 2-GS/s DAC-DDFS-IQ-controller baseband enabling a self-healing 60-GHz radio-on-chip

A 10-bit 2-GS/s mixed-signal baseband (BB) circuit, which enables a self-healing 60-GHz 4-Gb/s radio-on-chip implemented in a 65-nm complementary metal-oxide semiconductor, is described. The BB circuit autonomously senses and optimizes transmitter (TX) P_1dB, OIM₃, and image suppression, reducing the yield loss because of process variations. On-chip test tones are generated using a 10-bit 2-GS/s current-steering digital-to-analog converter (DAC) and direct digital frequency synthesizer (DDFS). Using the generated test tones, the aforementioned impairments are measured by an envelope detector at the power amplifier output. Based on this information, the programmable digital IQ phase amplitude and offset controller (IQ-CTRL) in the BB circuit improves the TX image suppression from -32.4 to -42.6 dBc, and digital control signals generated by the on-chip self-healing controller heal the TX P_dB and OIM₃ from 9.5 to 13.2 dBm and from -32.5 to - 40 dBc, respectively. In terms of achieving the target specifications, namely, TX image suppression < ,-40_dBc, OIM₃< -40_dBc, and P_1dB> 10_dBm, healing increases yield on ten dies from 0% to 100%. The BB circuit consumes only 49 mW, of which 37 mW comes from the DACs and 12 mW from the DDFS and the IQ-CTRL.