EEC 224 — Terahertz and mm-Wave Integrated Circuit Design
Fall 2025
Project#1
Due at 11:59pm on Friday Nov 21
mm-Wave Amplifier Design
Design an amplifier with the following specifications in a 45nm NCSU process:
• Center frequency 200GHz,
• 3dB bandwidth > 10GHz,
• Power gain at 200 GHz (|S21 |) > 8dB
• NF < 9dB over the 10GHz bandwidth,
• Supply voltage = 1V,
• Maximum power consumption = 3mW,
• Due to self resonance all inductors should be less than 250pH and have a quality factor of 20 at 200GHz (Assume a simple series RL model),
• Due to self resonance all capacitors should be less than 50fF and have a quality factor of 30 at 200GHz (Assume a simple series RC model),
• |S11 | and |S22 | < −10dB at 200GHz,
• Reverse isolation should be better than 20dB at 200 GHz(|S12 | < −20dB),
• The amplifier should be unconditionally stable up to 250 GHz.
• Simulate the 1-dB compression point of the final design at 200 GHz.
• The source and load impedances are 50 Ω .
• To have more realistic models add three 10-Ω resistors in series with the drain, source and gate of all the transistors.
• Do not use any finger or multiplier in the transistor setting. They cannot be modeled accurately.
• You can use ideal voltage sources (No ideal current source) to bias the circuit. No DC current should flow to the source and load impedances.
• Design with better gain and get extra credit (all the other specs should be satisfied).
Design report
The design report is an essential part of this homework. It should contain your initial literature search, design strategy and a summary of circuit performance. It should emphasize the most important features of your design. Provide analysis of your circuit including the fundamental limits of the transistors (fmax, Gmax, U, …), compare them with final amplifier simulation results, and discuss any potential discrepancies. Mention the possible shortcoming of your circuit and suggest methods to improve them. Include meaningful cadence output graphs to show that you have met all the design criteria. Your graphs should be clearly labeled and state what they are representing. If your design is benefiting from a prior work, make sure to reference it. Provide an estimate for the total size of your chip.
Your final report should have a cover sheet that includes your name. The second page of your report should show the achieved performance in a table and the third page should show a clear schematic of your circuit with the DC biasing and all the component values including the transistor sizes.