A Fully Integrated 135-GHz Direct-Digital 16-QAM Wireless and Dielectric Wavegui

Abstract

This article presents a fully integrated direct-digital 16-quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) communication link operating at 135 GHz. The transmitter employs a Cartesian direct-digital modulation architecture capable of generating a low-EVM 16-QAM constellation without relying on high-speed digital-to-analog converters (DACs). The receiver performs on- chip 16-QAM demodulation in the analog domain by means of pulse amplitude modulation (PAM-4) decoders, obviating the need for high-speed anal