A W-Band Stacked Frequency Quadrupler With A Dual Driven Core Achieving 10.3% Drain Efficiency

A W-Band stacked quadrupler with a dual-driven second-stage doubler is presented that, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, demonstrates the highest W-Band drain efficiency in silicon while maintaining a competitive output power and harmonic rejection. Implemented in a 90-nm SiGe BiCMOS process, the proposed topology circumvents the need of an interstage balun by using a pair of push-push doublers, whose input signals are 90◦ out-of-phase, as an input stage to drive a third, dual-driven push-push doubler. The stacked dual-driven second stage boosts the output fourth harmonic, allows for current reuse between the two stages, and reduces the need for high power driving doublers, promoting a highly efficient design. As a result, the quadrupler achieves a peak conversion gain of 2.2 dB, a peak output power of 6.8 dBm, a harmonic rejection of greater than 31 dBc, and a peak drain efficiency of 10.3%.