A monolithic distributed phase shifter based on right-handed nonlinear transmission lines at 30 GHz

The epitaxial material, device structure, and corresponding equivalent large signal circuit model of GaAs planar Schottky varactor diode are successfully developed to design and fabricate a monolithic phase shifter, which is based on right-handed nonlinear transmission lines and consists of a coplanar waveguide transmission line and periodically distributed GaAs planar Schottky varactor diode. The distributed-Schottky transmission-line-type phase shifter at a bias voltage greater than 1.5 V presents a continuous 0°–360° differential phase shift over a frequency range from 0 to 33 GHz. It is demonstrated that the minimum insertion loss is about 0.5 dB and that the return loss is less than-10 dB over the frequency band of 0–33 GHz at a reverse bias voltage less than 4.5 V. These excellent characteristics, such as broad differential phase shift, low insertion loss, and return loss, indicate that the proposed phase shifter can entirely be integrated into a phased array radar circuit.

Broadband microwave frequency doubler based on left-handed nonlinear transmission lines

A bandwidth microwave second harmonic generator is successfully designed using composite right/left-handed non- linear transmission lines （CRLH NLTLs） in a GaAs monolithic microwave integrated circuit （MMIC） technology. The structure parameters of CRLH NLTLs, e.g. host transmission line, rectangular spiral inductor, and nonlinear capacitor, have a great impact on the second harmonic performance enhancement in terms of second harmonic frequency, output power, and conversion efficiency. It has been experimentally demonstrated that the second harmonic frequency is deter- mined by the anomalous dispersion of CRLH NLTLs and can be significantly improved by effectively adjusting these structure parameters. A good agreement between the measured and simulated second harmonic performances of Ka-band CRLH NLTLs frequency multipliers is successfully achieved, which further validates the design approach of frequency multipliers on CRLH NLTLs and indicates the potentials of CRLH NLTLs in terms of the generation of microwave and millimeter-wave signal source.

Design of 35 GHz 1 Watt GaAs pHEMT Power Amplifier MMIC

By using 0.15 μm GaAs pHEMT （pseudomorphic high electron mobility transistor） technology,a design of millimeter wave power amplifier microwave monolithic integrated circuit （MMIC） is presented.With careful optimization on circuit structure,this two-stage power amplifier achieves a simulated gain of 15.5 dB with fluctuation of 1 dB from 33 GHz to 37 GHz.A simulated output power of more than 30 dBm in saturation can be drawn from 3 W DC supply with maximum power added efficiency （PAE） of 26%.Rigorous electromagnetic simulation is performed to make sure the simulation results are credible.The whole chip area is 3.99 mm2 including all bond pads.

A high power active circulator using GaN MMIC power amplifiers

This paper presents a 2.4 GHz hybrid integrated active circulator consisting of three power amplifiers and three PCB-based Wilkinson power dividers. The power amplifiers were designed and fabricated in a standard 0.35-μm AlGaN/GaN HEMT technology, and combined with three traditional power dividers on FR4 using bonding wires. Due to the isolation of power dividers, the isolation between three ports is achieved; meanwhile, due to the unidirectional characteristics of the power amplifiers, the nonreciprocal transfer characteristic of the circulator is realized. The measured insertion gain of the proposed active circulator is about 2-2.7 dB at the center frequency of 2.4 GHz, the isolation between three ports is better than 20 dB over 1.2-3.4 GHz, and the output power of the designed active circulator achieves up to 20.1-21.2 dBm at the center frequency.

A 31–45.5 GHz injection-locked frequency divider in 90-nm CMOS technology

We present a 31–45.5 GHz injection-locked frequency divider(ILFD) implemented in a standard 90-nm CMOS process. To reduce parasitic capacitance and increase the operating frequency, an NMOS-only cross-coupled pair is adopted to provide negative resistance. Acting as an adjustable resistor, an NMOS transistor with a tunable gate bias voltage is connected to the differential output terminals for locking range extension. Measurements show that the designed ILFD can be fully functional in a wide locking range and provides a good figure-of-merit. Under a 1 V tunable bias voltage, the self-resonant frequency of the divider is 19.11 GHz and the maximum locking range is 37.7% at 38.5 GHz with an input power of 0 d Bm. The power consumption is 2.88 m W under a supply voltage of 1.2 V. The size of the chip including the pads is 0.62 mm×0.42 mm.