This paper investigates the challenges and limitations an IC chip places for modeling a mm-wave antenna system. A compact differential antenna-IC transition suitable for antenna array applications at 100 GHz is presented. Challenges related to including the chip in the antenna design process are evaluated by analyzing the transition through EM simulations. The importance of the correct excitation method in the simulations is discussed, and different excitation port types and their locations are compared. Additionally, the effects of differently modeled IC chips, for example a simple silicon slab or partially metallic chip, are studied. Finally, recommendations for the combined antenna and IC chip simulations are given.

This paper describes the design of a 140-GHz lownoise amplifier in 130-nm SiGe BiCMOS technology. The circuit is aimed for a high integration-density imaging radiometer, where several receivers are integrated on the same die. Thus, we particularly focus on minimizing the die area and power consumption. The two-stage amplifier is composed of cascode stages with gain boosting base resonators. The performance of a single cascode stage is optimized by correctly sizing the base resonator to avoid instability and optimizing the compact transistor layout without typically used interstage matching between the cascode stages. The circuit features gain of 19 dB at 140 GHz, and noise figure of 7 dB, while consuming only 15 mW with the supply voltage of 2 V and occupying a die area of 0.1 mm 2 .