Distributed transmission line phase shifter using parallel-plate ferroelectric thin film varactors

A distributed transmission line phase shifter based on two series connected parallel-plate ferroelectric thin film varactors, which are integrated into single crystal (1 0 0) LaAlO₃ (LAO) wafer, is presented. The equivalent circuit model was simulated by the EM simulation software in an effort to optimize the design. A device with differential phase shifts of 150^o at 8 GHz with a low bias voltage of 12 V was realized.     

Low-loss electrooptic BaTiO/sub 3/ thin film waveguide modulator

A strip-loaded electrooptic waveguide modulator based on an epitaxial BaTiO/sub 3/ thin film was fabricated and characterized for the first time. The strip-loaded waveguide structure greatly improves waveguide propagation and polarization-dependent loss performance. A propagation loss of 1.1 dB/cm and polarization dependent loss of 0.1 dB/cm were measured. The electrooptic waveguide modulator exhibited a half-wave voltage-interaction length product of 4.5 V /spl middot/ cm at a wavelength of 1542 nm. The measured effective electrooptic coefficient of the as-grown BaTiO/sub 3/ waveguide modulator was 38 pm/V. The experimental results indicate that a strip-loaded thin film waveguide modulator is suitable for photonic applications.     

A new high performance phase shifter using BaxSr1-xTiO3 thin films

In this paper, a new device topology has been proposed to implement parallel plate capacitors using Ba_xSr_1-xTiO₃ (BST) thin films. The device layout utilizes a single parallel capacitor and minimizes conductor losses in the base electrode. The new design simplifies the monolithic process and overcomes the problems associated with electrode patterning. An X-band 180° phase shifter has been implemented using the new device design. The circuit provided 240° phase shift with an insertion loss of only 3 dB at 10 GHz at room temperature. We have shown a figure of merit 93°/dB at 6.3 GHz and 87°/dB at 8.5 GHz. To our knowledge, these are the best figure of merit results reported in the literature for distributed phase shifters implemented using BST films at room temperature     

一种新型BST薄膜移相器的电路设计

采用铁电材料钛酸锶钡(BST)的薄膜移相器以其成本低廉、响应速度快、频带宽、体积小、重量轻、控制简单等诸多优点而引起关注.本文对BST薄膜移相器的设计模型进行研究分析,提出了一种新型的电路结构,在BST材料移相器的大移相量和尽可能低的损耗一对矛盾中找到一个平衡点.并通过ADS仿真验证了这一新型电路.     

Preparation and growth of thin film Pb/sub 2/Sr/sub 2/Ca/sub 0.5/Y/sub 0.5/Cu/sub 3/O/sub 8+ delta / superconductors by laser ablation

For the first time, the preparation of thin films of superconducting Pb/sub 2/Sr/sub 2/Y/sub 0.5/Ca/sub 0.5/Cu/sub 3/O/sub 8+ delta / material using standard bulk target preparation conditions and the laser ablation technique is reported. In common with much of the bulk characteristics, it is found that the width of the superconducting transition is large, extending from T/sub c,onset/ between 70-83 K and T/sub c,zero/ between 16-20 K.<>     

Surface and sensing properties of PE-ALD SnO/sub 2/ thin film

SnO/sub 2/ thin films have been deposited by plasma enhanced-atomic layer deposition (PE-ALD) on Si (100) substrate. The dominant oxygen species for post-annealing films were O/sub 2//sup -/, O/sup 2-/ and O/sup -/ for 100, 200 and 400 cycles, respectively. The film for 200 cycles has a good CO sensing property at the highest concentration of O/sup 2-/ species.     

Surface-acoustic-wave phase shifter using electrical depolarisation

An electrically variable phase shifter employing surface acoustic waves is described that uses electrical depolarisation of a poled PZT ceramic. Phase shifting occurs in a depoling region in which an electric field of variable strength opposes the remanent ferroelectric moment, causing a change in the piezoelectric coupling and surface-wave velocity.     

Integration of microwave phase shifter with BST varactor onto TiO/sub 2//Si wafer

A BST ferroelectric thin-film microwave phase shifter with interdigital capacitors on TiO₂/Si substrate is presented. The interdigital capacitors have 230 mum signal width, 100 mum signal to ground gap, and 10 mum finger gap. The device, with phase shifts of 142deg and FoM of 107.3deg/dB applied voltage of 50 V at 16 GHz, has been realised. The TiO₂ buffer layer grown by ALD enables successful integration of BST-based microwave tunable devices with Si wafer.     

GHz bandstop microstrip filter using patterned Ni/sub 78/Fe/sub 22/ ferromagnetic film

A series of microstrips with patterned Ni/sub 78/Fe/sub 22/ ferromagnetic cores have been investigated for RF applications. The devices have been integrated onto a silicon substrate by using a fully IC-compatible process. The Ni/sub 78/Fe/sub 22/ films were deposited by electroplating onto Si at room temperature and were structured into rectangular prisms with large aspect ratios, i.e., 10:1 and 40:1. Measurements have been performed using a network analyzer. Voltage attenuation of 19 dB/cm has been obtained at 3.9 GHz on a 2-mm-long strip line. The propagating wavelength is reduced by 60% compared to a control device without ferromagnetic core.     

Voltage-controlled optical/RF phase shifter

A new fiber-optic device designed to steer the radiation beam of a phased-array antenna has been demonstrated. A radiofrequency (RF) signal at 125 MHz is generated via photomixing at the output of a single-mode fiber-optic interferometer. The phase of the electrical signal is shifted over several cycles in direct proportion to a voltage applied to an optical controller. The controller consists of a Pockels-type optical phase modulator located in one arm of the heterodyne interferometer. Rapid changes in RF phase are feasible. A miniature low-voltage version of the device, based upon integrated optics, is proposed.     

Microwave phase shifter using optical waveguide structure

A microwave phase shifter with an integrated optics structure with high efficiency is discussed. The structure and the performance of the device are discussed. Microwave phase shifting was carried out using the fabricated phase shifter of titanium diffused LiNbO₃ optical waveguides. The measured voltage to obtain halfwave phase shift for a 800 MHz microwave signal was 7.0 V. The input microwave power was 21 dBm, and the detected output microwave power was -24 dBm, so the microwave insertion loss was calculated to be approximately -45 dB. The optical insertion loss of the device was -12 dB     

Characteristics of Al/sub 2/O/sub 3//TiO/sub 2/ nanolaminates and AlTiO thin films on Si

This letter reports a metal-insulator-semiconductor structure based on Al/sub 2/O/sub 3//TiO/sub 2/ nanolaminates and AlTiO films evaporated on an unheated p-Si substrate. The structure exhibits a low hysteresis in the capacitance-voltage characteristics, a larger dielectric constant leading to a quantum mechanically corrected effective oxide thickness of 1.35-2.1 nm, good stability of the electrical characteristics to thermal processes, a large breakdown electric field of 7.5 MV/cm, and a leakage current density below 5/spl times/10/sup -7/ A/cm/sup 2/ at an electric field of 2 MV/cm.     

New method of domain inversion in LiNbO/sub 3/ using thermal oxidation of Ti film

A new technique for fabricating domain inversion regions in -c face LiNbO/sub 3/ by thermal oxidation of Ti is reported. This technique can minimise refractive index changes in such regions, thus it is suitable for quasiphase-matching (QPM) second harmonic generation (SHG). A prototype QPM waveguide SHG device is also demonstrated.<>     

Distributed phase shifter with pyrochlore bismuth zinc niobate thin films

A monolithic Ku-band phase shifter employing voltage tunable Bi/sub 1.5/Zn/sub 1.0/Nb/sub 1.5/O/sub 7/ (BZN) thin film parallel plate capacitors is reported. BZN films were deposited by radio frequency magnetron sputtering on single-crystal sapphire substrates. A nine-section distributed coplanar waveguide loaded-line phase-shifter structure was designed. A differential phase shift of 175/spl deg/ was achieved with a maximum insertion loss of 3.5 dB at 15 GHz, giving a figure of merit /spl sim/50/spl deg//dB. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first demonstration of a monolithic tunable microwave circuit using BZN thin films.     

Integration of Ba/sub x/Sr/sub 1-x/TiO/sub 3/ thin films with AlGaN/GaN HEMT circuits

Ba/sub x/Sr/sub 1-x/TiO/sub 3/ (BST) thin films have large dielectric constants that can be varied by as much as a factor of 3 with an applied field, making them attractive for radio frequency (RF) circuits as small-area ac bypass/dc blocking capacitors, or high-power varactors. However, BST must be deposited at relatively high temperatures in an oxidizing environment, presenting significant integration challenges for MMIC applications. This letter describes the successful integration of BST films on AlGaN/GaN high electron-mobility transistor (HEMT) monolithic microwave integrated circuits on sapphire substrates. A sacrificial SiO/sub 2/ buffer layer is used to protect the underlying AlGaN during the RF magnetron sputtering of the BST film at an elevated temperature, with a carefully controlled heater ramp rate to avoid degradation of the ohmic contacts on the HEMT.     

Composite right/left handed transmission line phase shifter using ferroelectric varactors

A composite right/left handed (CRLH) transmission line (TL) phase shifter, using ferroelectric (Ba/sub 0.25/Sr/sub 0.75/TiO/sub 3/) varactors as tunable element, is presented for the first time. It is theoretically and experimentally demonstrated how the unique features of CRLH TLs, enables a differential phase shift with flat frequency dependence around the center frequency. The experimental prototype is a coplanar design integrated on a high resistive Si substrate. It includes four CRLH T-unit cells and has a physical length of 3850/spl mu/m. The ferroelectric varactors are realized in parallel plate version. Under 15-V dc bias applied over each varactor, the differential phase shift is flat around 17GHz and has an absolute value of 50/spl deg/.     

An MMIC active phase shifter using a variable resonant circuit [andMESFETs]

This paper describes a monolithic-microwave integrated-circuit (MMIC) active phase shifter using a variable resonant circuit with a large amount of variable phase. We first propose a novel active phase-shifter configuration that uses a variable resonant circuit with second-order all-pass network characteristics. Phase can be changed with a constant amplitude by varying the capacitance or the inductance of the resonant circuit. Next, an experimental MMIC active phase shifter with input active matching is presented. A phase shift of over 100° and an insertion loss of 4±1 dB are obtained from 2.2 to 2.8 GHz. The chip size is less than 1.0 mm². Finally, an experimental 360° MMIC active phase shifter is presented. Over the bandwidth of 40 MHz at 2.44 GHz, the insertion gain is 2.0±0.7 dB and the phase error is within ±4° when measured in 30° steps     

Reflection-type continuously-tunable phase shifter using PZT thin-film capacitors

The design, fabrication and performance of a reflection-type tunable phase shifter based on a lead zirconate titanate (PZT) thin-film process is presented. The phase shifter consists of a coplanar waveguide Lange coupler on high resistivity silicon (HRSi) and two ferroelectric PZT varactors. At 12 GHz, the varactors achieve a capacitance tuning range of 5.5 to 1 along with a phase shift of 86° with bias voltages in the range 0?26 V. Analysis of the losses due to the varactors and the rest of the phase shifter is also presented.     

Improved broadband dumb-bell-shaped phase shifter using multi-section stubs

A broadband dumb-bell-shaped 45deg phase shifter is presented using a new design comprised of open-circuit and short-circuit multi-section stubs. A wideband phase shifter operating over the frequency range 2-6 GHz was designed and fabricated for verification purposes. It was measured to have a bandwidth of about 100% for a maximum phase deviation of plusmn3.2deg, and maximum insertion loss of 2.1 dB.     

High-performance MIM capacitor using ALD high-k HfO/sub 2/-Al/sub 2/O/sub 3/ laminate dielectrics

For the first time, we successfully fabricated and demonstrated high performance metal-insulator-metal (MIM) capacitors with HfO/sub 2/-Al/sub 2/O/sub 3/ laminate dielectric using atomic layer deposition (ALD) technique. Our data indicates that the laminate MIM capacitor can provide high capacitance density of 12.8 fF//spl mu/m/sup 2/ from 10 kHz up to 20 GHz, very low leakage current of 3.2 /spl times/ 10/sup -8/ A/cm/sup 2/ at 3.3 V, small linear voltage coefficient of capacitance of 240 ppm/V together with quadratic one of 1830 ppm/V/sup 2/, temperature coefficient of capacitance of 182 ppm//spl deg/C, and high breakdown field of /spl sim/6 MV/cm as well as promising reliability. As a result, the HfO/sub 2/-Al/sub 2/O/sub 3/ laminate is a very promising candidate for next generation MIM capacitor for radio frequency and mixed signal integrated circuit applications.