Design and Characterization of a D-Band SiGe HBT Front-End for Dicke Radiometers

This paper reports the design and characterization of a D-band front-end receiver, implemented in a 0.13-mu m SiGe BiCMOS technology, for use in a direct-detection-based Dicke radiometer architecture. The peak responsivity of the Dicke radiometer is 688 MV/W at 130 GHz, and its minimum value is about 82.6 MV/W at 170 GHz. The Dicke switching frequency is 10 kHz. The noise equivalent power of the Dicke radiometer remains below 20fW/Hz(1/2) at the frequency range of 110-155 GHz, and its minimum value is about 9.3 fW/Hz(1/2) at 130 GHz. The implemented radiometer achieves an NETD of 0.13K for a back-end integration time of 30ms. Its total chip area is approximately 1.7mm(2), and the overall quiescent DC power consumption is 33.8 mW. To the authors' best knowledge, the implemented Dicke radiometer achieves the best NETD in the literature.