Advances in Developing Transitions in Microwave Integrated Circuits

Advances in developing transitions in microwave integrated circuits during the last ten years are reviewed. Some typical structures of transition are introduced. Transition structures can be classified into two basic types: one is transition between the same kind of transmission lines on different planes of a common substrate, the other transition between different types of transmission lines. Furthermore, future development of transition structures is discussed.

Microwave Integrated Circuit Design Handbook

作者:Reinmut K.Hoffmann(1984 IEEE微波奖获得者) 出版:Artech House公司(美国)1987年本书给出适于微波工程师和研究人员应用的有关MIC方面的基础技术、电性能和设计。侧重于电性能分析和设计,强调应用。对于每一种设计技术和应用均作出较清楚的叙述和完整的处理。本书尽量给出电路的物理描述,避免过于冗长的数学公式,内容包含对下列议题的详细评述与研讨:

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.

Broadband MMIC Power Amplifier for C-X-Ku-Band Applications

A three-stage MMIC power amplifier operating from 6to 18GHz is fabricated using 0.25μm A1GaAs/InGaAs/GaAs pseudomorphic high electron mobility transistor（PHEMT）.The amplifier isfully monolithic,with all matching,biasing,and DC block circuitry included on the chip.Thepower amplifier has an average power gain of 19dB over 6～18GHz.At operation frequenciesfrom 6 to 18GHz,the output power is above 33.3dBm,and the maximum output power of the MMICis 34.7dBm at 10Ghz.The input return loss is less than-10db and the out-put return is lessthan-6dB over operating frequency.This power amplifier has,to our knowledge,the best powergain flatness reported at C-X-Ku-band applications.

A4~12GHz Wideband Balanced MIC Power Amplifier

A 4-12GHz wideband power amplifier,using a balanced configuration with a strip line Lange coupler, is designed and fabricated. This power amplifier shows a maximum continuous wave output power of 29.5dBm at 8GHz center frequency with an associated gain of 8.5dB and a gain flatness of ＋ /- 0.6dB in the 4-12GHz frequency range.

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.

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 monolithic K-band phase-locked loop for microwave radar application

A monolithic K-band phase-locked loop（PLL） for microwave radar application is proposed and implemented in this paper. By eliminating the tail transistor and using optimized high-Q LC-tank, the proposed voltage-controlled oscillator（VCO） achieves a tuning range of 18.4 to 23.3 GHz and reduced phase noise. Two cascaded current-mode logic（CML） divide-by-two frequency prescalers are implemented to bridge the frequency gap, in which inductor peaking technique is used in the first stage to further boost allowable input frequency.Six-stage TSPC divider chain is used to provide programmable division ratio from 64 to 127, and a second-order passive loop filter with 825 kHz bandwidth is also integrated on-chip to minimize required external components.The proposed PLL needs only approximately 18.2 μs settling time, and achieves a wide tuning range from 18.4 to 23.3 GHz, with a typical output power of –0.84 dBm and phase noise of 91：92 d Bc/Hz @ 1 MHz. The chip is implemented in TSMC 65 nm CMOS process, and occupies an area of 0.56 mm^2 without pads under a 1.2 V single voltage supply.

Ka-band ultra low voltage miniature sub-harmonic resistive mixer with a new broadside coupled Marchand balun in 0.18-μm CMOS technology

A Ka-band sub-harmonically pumped resistive mixer （SHPRM） was designed and fabricated using the standard 0.18-μm complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor （CMOS） technology. An area-effective asymmetric broadside coupled spiral Marchand balance-to-unbalance （balun） with magnitude and phase imbalance compensation is used in the mixer to transform local oscillation （LO） signal from single to differential mode. The results showed that the SHPRM achieves the conversion gain of -15- -12.5 dB at fixed fIF=0.5 GHz with 8 dBm LO input power for the radio frequency （RF） bandwidth of 28 35 GHz. The in-band LO-intermediate freqency （IF）, RF-IF, and LO-RF isolations are better than 31, 34, and 36 dB, respectively. Besides, the 2LO-IF and 2LO-RF isolations are better than 60 and 45 dB, respectively. The measured input referred PIdB and 3rd-order inter-modulation intercept point （IIP3） are 0.5 and 10.5 dBm, respectively. The measurement is performed under a gate bias voltage as low as 0.1 V and the whole chip only occupies an area of 0.33 mm^2 including 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.