A Fully Embedded 60-GHz Novel BPF for LTCC System-in-Package Applications

In this paper, a novel LTCC stripline (SL) 60-GHz band-pass filter (BPF) composed of transitions to coplanar waveguide (CPW) pads for monolithic microwave integrated circuit integration is presented. For low-loss interconnection with active devices, a CPW-to-SL vertical via transition integrating air cavities and a CPW-to-CPW planar transition using internal ground planes are proposed and implemented. The fabricated transition shows an insertion loss of 1.6 dB and a reflection loss below -20 dB at the passband of the filter. The implemented SL BPF using dual-mode patch resonators shows a center frequency of 60.4 GHz, 3.5 % bandwidth, and reflection losses below -15 dB at the passband. Excluding the insertion loss of the transitions, the filter insertion loss reveals 4.0 dB     

Conductor-loss limited stripline resonator and filters

We report on stripline resonators on thin dielectric membranes that show dispersion-free, conductor-loss limited performance at 13.5 GHz, 27.3 GHz, and 39.6 GHz. The unloaded-Q (Q_u) of the resonators increases as √f with frequency and is measured to be 386 at 27 GHz. The measured results agree well with a new conformal mapping analysis. The stripline resonators are used in a micromachined state-of-the-art planar interdigitated bandpass filter at K-band frequencies. Excellent agreement has been achieved between the microwave model at 850 MHz and the 20 GHz filter. The micromachined filter exhibits a passband return loss better than -15 dB and a conductor-loss limited 1.7 dB port-to-port insertion loss (including input/output CPW line loss) at 20.3 GHz     

低损耗衬底上实现无源低通滤波器

分析比较了不同种类衬底上无源器件(片上电感和电容)的损耗机理,在OPS(氧化多孔硅)和HR(高阻硅)低损耗衬底上分别实现了片上低通滤波器.为了研究衬底损耗,设计了平面螺旋电感,其Q值在两种衬底上的仿真结果都超过了20.在OPS衬底上的低通滤波器实测-3dB带宽为2.9GHz,通带插入损耗在500MHz为0.87dB;在HR衬底上的低通滤波器实测-3dB带宽为2.3GHz,通带插入损耗在500MHz为0.42dB.     

低损耗衬底上实现无源低通滤波器

分析比较了不同种类衬底上无源器件(片上电感和电容)的损耗机理,在OPS(氧化多孔硅)和HR(高阻硅)低损耗衬底上分别实现了片上低通滤波器.为了研究衬底损耗,设计了平面螺旋电感,其Q值在两种衬底上的仿真结果都超过了20.在OPS衬底上的低通滤波器实测-3dB带宽为2.9GHz,通带插入损耗在500MHz为0.87dB;在HR衬底上的低通滤波器实测-3dB带宽为2.3GHz,通带插入损耗在500MHz为0.42dB.     

Compact Corporate Power DividerUsing Metamaterial NRI-TLCoupled-Line Couplers

A low-loss, planar and compact metamaterial 1:4 corporate power divider design is presented. The power divider uses a cascade of three microstrip/negative-refractive-index transmission-line coupled-line couplers allowing it to be compact in the longitudinal direction. The fabricated prototype operates at 2.10 GHz and is 11.6 cm wide-designed for feeding a four-element patch antenna array. The 3 dB transmission bandwidth ranges from 0.73 GHz to 0.46 GHz for the various ports with a total insertion loss of 1.1 dB, good phase balance and better than 20 dB isolation among the output ports.     

Design of a 24-40 GHz balanced low noise amplifier using Lange couplers

A wide band(24-40 GHz)fully integrated balanced low noise amplifier(LNA)using Lange couplers was designed and fabricated with a 0.15/zm pseudomorphic HEMT(pHEMT)technology.A new method to design a low-loss and high-coupling Lange coupler for wide band application in microwave frequency was also presented.This Lange coupler has a minimum loss of 0.09 dB and a maximum loss of 0.2 dB over the bandwidth from 20 to 45 GHz.The measured results show that the realized four-stage balanced LNA using this Lange coupler exhibites a noise figure(NF)of less than 2.7 dB and the maximum gain of 30 dB;moreover,a noticeably improved reflection performance is achieved.The input VSWR and the output VSWR are respectively less than 1.45 and 1.35 dB across the 24-40 GHz frequency range.     

A Single-Ended Resistive $X$-Band AlGaN/GaN HEMT MMIC Mixer

A broadband highly linear X-band mixer in AlGaN/GaN monolithic microwave integrated circuit technology has been designed, processed, and characterized. The design is based on a 4 times 100 mum AlGaN/GaN HEMT in a single-ended circuit topology. The mixer has an IF bandwidth of 2 GHz with a conversion loss (CL) of < 8 dB across the X-band with a minimum CL of 6.9 dB at 11 GHz. The large-signal performance is exemplified by IIP 3 levels of 22 and 30 dBm at local oscillator drive levels of 15 and 23 dBm, respectively. A minimum noise figure of 9 dB is achieved at 11.6 GHz.     

Broadband transition between half mode substrate integrated waveguide and rectangular waveguide

A broadband transition between a half mode substrate integrated waveguide and a rectangular waveguide with an antipodal fin-line in its quasi-TEM mode is presented. Experimental results show about 1.3 dB insertion loss and below 215 dB return loss for a back-toback double transition over 10 GHz bandwidth from 26.5 to 40 GHz (the single transition insertion loss is about 0.65 dB). The transition may be used in low-loss and low-noise front-end circuits of the microwave and millimetre-wave bands.     

一个DC-32GHz两位微机械移相器

采用分布式微机械传输线结构实现了两位移相器,并且为了减小传输线负载电容和驱动电压首次提出了用共面波导传输线来驱动微机械桥的结构(共面波导驱动结构).结果显示驱动电压小于20V,20GHz时两位移相器的相移为0°/20.1°/41.9°/68.2°,插入损耗为-1.2dB.在DC到32GHz的范围内相移具有良好的线性,插入损耗小于-1.8dB,反射损耗好于-11dB.实验结果表明了该结构在高介电常数衬底上制造低插损、宽带数字微机械射频移相器的潜力.     

A 3.3 mW K-Band 0.18-μ m 1P6M CMOS Active Bandpass Filter Using Complementary Current-Reuse Pair

This letter presents a low-power active bandpass filter (BPF) at K-band fabricated by the standard 0.18 mum 1P6M CMOS technology. The proposed filter is evolved from the conventional half-wavelength resonator filter, using the complementary-conducting-strip transmission line (CCS TL) as the half-wavelength resonator. Furthermore, the complementary MOS cross-couple pair is proposed as a form of current-reuse scheme for achieving low-power consumption and high Q-factor simultaneously. The simulated results indicate that the Q-factor of the proposed half-wavelength resonator can be boosted from 9 to 513 at 25.65 GHz compared with the resonator enhanced by the nMOS cross-couple pair to Q-factor of merely 43 under the same power consumption. The proposed active BPF of order two occupies the chip area of 360 mum times 360 mum without contact pads. The measured results show that the center frequency of the active BPF is 22.70 GHz and a bandwidth of 1.68 GHz (7.39 %). The measured P_{1 dB} and noise figure at 22.70 GHz are -7.65 dBm and 14.05 dB, respectively. There is a 56.84 dB suppression between the fundamental tone and the second harmonic when the input power is -11.26 dBm. While showing 0 dB loss and some residual gain, the active BPF consumes 2.0 mA at 1.65 V supply voltage with maximum of 0.15 dB insertion loss and 9.96 dB return loss at pass band.     

Compact PIFA for 2.4/5 GHz dual ISM-band applications

A compact and novel modified planar inverted-F antenna (PIFA) for dual ISM-band application is proposed. The proposed antenna, including a small ground plane, occupies a volume of 20/spl times/23.7/spl times/0.8 mm/sup 3/ (FR-4). The impedance bandwidth with 10 dB return loss is about 150 MHz (2380-2530 MHz) for 2.4 GHz band and 1450 MHz (5130-6580 MHz) for 5 GHz band. The measured radiation patterns are approximately omnidirectional and yield a gain of 1.0 dBi at 2440 MHz and 3.98 dBi at 5600 MHz, respectively.     

High-temperature superconductive devices on sapphire

The low-loss and uniform dielectric properties of sapphire make it attractive for high-performance microwave devices using high-temperature superconductors. YBa₂Cu₃O_7-δ films have been deposited on oxide-buffered 5-cm-diameter wafers and demonstrated a surface resistance of 0.5 mΩ at 10 GHz and 77 K. Long (9-ns) stripline delay lines have for the first time been produced on these substrates and have a measured insertion loss of 1.5 dB at 6 GHz and 77 K. Design techniques appropriate for the dielectric anisotropy of sapphire are discussed     

3-D CMOS Circuits Based on Low-Loss Vertical Interconnects on Parylene-N

parylene-N is used as a dielectric layer to create ultra low-loss 3-D vertical interconnects and coplanar waveguide (CPW) transmission lines on a CMOS substrate. Insertion loss of 0.013 dB for a 3-D vertical interconnect through a 15-$mu$ m-thick parylene-N layer and 0.56 dB/mm for a 50- $Omega$ CPW line on the parylene-N layer (compared to 1.85 dB/mm on a standard CMOS substrate) are measured at 40 GHz. L-shaped, U-shaped, and T-junction CPW structures are also fabricated with underpasses that eliminate the discontinuities arisen from the slot-line mode and are characterized up to 40 GHz. A 3-D low-noise amplifier using these post-processed structures on a 0.13-$mu$ m CMOS technology is also presented along with the investigation of parasitic effects for accurate simulation of such a 3-D circuit. The 3-D circuit implementation reduces the attenuation per unit length of the transmission lines, while preserving the CMOS chip area (in this specific design) by approximately 25%. The 3-D amplifier measures a gain of 13 dB at 2 GHz with 3-dB bandwidth of 500 MHz, noise figure of 3.3 dB, and output 1-dB compression point of ${+}$ 4.6 dBm. Room-temperature processing, simple fabrication, low-loss performance, and compatibility with the CMOS process make this technology a suitable choice for future 3-D CMOS and BiCMOS monolithic microwave integrated circuit applications that currently suffer from high substrate loss and crosstalk.      

X波段基片集成波导带通滤波器的设计

基片集成波导是一种具有低差损、低辐射、高品质因数的新型平面导波结构.文中利用基片集成波导结构设计并制作了一种x波段的带通滤波器,该滤波器易与其它微波平面电路集成.实测结果表明,该滤波器的中心频率是9.58 GHz,相对带宽是8.35%,通带内的插入损耗是3.8 dB,回波损耗＜-15 dB.     

High-temperature superconducting delay lines and filters onsapphire and thinned LaAlO3 substrates

The very low microwave surface resistance of high-temperature-superconductor (HTS) thin films allows the realization of microwave devices with performance superior to those made by conventional technology. Superconducting delay lines, for example, have very low propagation loss and dispersion. Long, low-loss, superconducting delay lines on both thinned LaAlO₃ and sapphire substrates are presented. Delay lines with 27- and 44-ns delay have been made, for the first time, on 5-cm-diameter 254- and 127-μm-thick LaAlO₃ substrates, respectively. The insertion losses at 77 K and 6 GHz are 6 and 16 dB, respectively. Delay lines with 9-ns delay have, for the first time, been produced on M-plane sapphire substrates and demonstrate, at 77 K, an insertion loss of 1.0 dB at 6 GHz. A 2.5%-bandwidth 10 GHz four pole edge-coupled bandpass filter on M-plane sapphire substrates is also reported. The filter has minimum insertion loss of less than 0.5 dB at 9.75 GHz and 71 K     

A Novel Planar Three-Way Power Divider

A novel planar three-way power divider is proposed. Based on the conventional planar microstrip coupled line technology, the proposed three-way power divider can modify a three-way Wilkinson power divider from a three-dimensional configuration into a two-dimensional one, meanwhile, to keep the length of the circuit to be$lambda/$4. The planar structure enables easy circuit design in printed circuit boards and monolithic microwave integrated circuits. The design concept and implementation are discussed. From the measured results, less than 4.8$pm $0.1dB of the three equivalent insertion losses, less than 19.5dB of the return loss, and better than 17.5dB of isolation at 2.4GHz can be achieved.     

Switchable low-loss RF MEMS Ka-band frequency-selective surface

A switchable frequency-selective surface (FSS) was developed at 30 GHz using RF microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) switches on a 500-/spl mu/m-thick glass substrate. The 3-in-diameter FSS is composed of 909 unit cells and 3636 MEMS bridges with a yield of 99.5%. The single-pole FSS shows a transmission loss of 2.0 dB and a -3-dB bandwidth of 3.2 GHz at a resonant frequency of 30.2 GHz with the MEMS bridges in the up-state position. The -1-dB bandwidth is 1.6 GHz. When the MEMS bridges are actuated to the down-state position, an insertion loss of 27.5 dB is measured. Theory and experiment agree quite well. The power handling is limited to approximately 25 W with passive air cooling and >150 W with active air cooling due to the increased temperature of the overall circuit resulting from the transmission loss (for continuous-wave operation with the assumed maximum allowable temperature of 80/spl deg/C), or 370 W-3.5 kW due to self-actuation of the RF MEMS bridges (for pulsed incident power). Experimental results validate that 20 W of continuous-wave power can be transferred by the RF MEMS FSS with no change in the frequency response. This is the first demonstration of a switched low-loss FSS at Ka-band frequencies.     

An Active IF Balun for a Doubly Balanced Resistive Mixer

In this letter, we present a wideband active intermediate frequency (IF) balun for a doubly balanced resistive mixer implemented using a 0.5 mum GaAs pHEMT process. The 0.3 times 0.5 mm² IF balun was realized through a DC-coupled differential amplifier in order to extend IF frequency of the mixer to DC. The measured amplitude and phase imbalances were less than 1 dB and 5deg, respectively, from DC to 7 GHz. The output third order intercept (OIP3) and P1 dB of the IF balun were 18 dBm and 6 dBm, respectively at 1 GHz. The mixer with the IF balun is 1.7 times 1.8 mm² in size, has a conversion loss of 2 to 8 dB from 8 to 20 GHz RF frequency at a fixed IF of 1 kHz, which proves the mixer operates successfully at an IF frequency close to DC. The measured OIP3 were +10 to +15 dBm over the operating frequency with a DC power consumption of 370 mW.     

60 GHz compact integrated cross-coupled SIR-MH bandpass filter on bulk CMOS

A new 60 GHz fourth-order cross-coupled bandpass filter using a step- impedance-resonator (SIR) miniaturised open-loop resonator and the miniaturised-hairpin (MH) resonator was designed and fabricated on 0.13 mum bulk CMOS. It has 8.5 GHz (58-66.5 GHz) bandwidth, 5.9 dB insertion loss, and better than 10 dB return loss over the whole passband, and exhibits high selectivity and a compact size of 714.9 times 484 mum (0.346 mm ). This filter is the first reported cross-coupled filter above 40 GHz on CMOS.     

A High-Power $Ka$-Band (31–36 GHz) Solid-State Amplifier Based on Low-Loss Corporate Waveguide Combining

A method of using low-loss waveguide septum combiners is developed into a high-power $Ka$-band (31–36 GHz) amplifier producing $>$50 W at 33 GHz ($Ka$-band) using 32 low-power ($≪$2 W) solid-state amplifier modules. By using low-loss waveguide combining and a packaged monolithic microwave integrated circuit with a low-loss microstrip-to-waveguide launcher, the output loss is minimized, allowing for the overall power-combining efficiency to remain high, $>$80% (average insertion loss of combiner $≪$ 0.7 dB and average insertion loss of launcher $≪$0.3 dB) over 31–36 GHz. In the past, lower power-combining efficiencies have limited the number of modules that can be combined at $Ka$ -band, and hence, have limited the power output. The approach demonstrated in this paper, with high power-combining efficiency, allows a very large number (32) of solid-state amplifier modules to be combined to produce high powers. Greater than 50 W was demonstrated with low power modules, but even higher powers $>$120 W are possible. The current approach is based on corporate combining, using low-loss waveguide septum combiners that provide isolation, maintaining the true graceful degradation of a modular solid-state amplifier system.