Novel Design Approach for X-Band GaAs Monolithic Analog 1/4 Frequency Divider

A novel analog frequency divider which can generate a 1/4 frequency component is proposed. The frequency divider consists of a dual-gate FET and a two-stage capacitor-resistor coupled amplifier. This circuit configuration also enables achieving a small-size GaAs MMIC analog frequency divider. In this analog frequency divider, the input signal f/sub 0/ is mixed with signal component f/sub 0//x caused by noise or transients in a feedback loop. Then, a (1 -- 1/x)f/sub 0/ IF component is induced and is again mixed with the input signal. This process delivers the f/sub 0//x component regeneratively. Resultant continuous signal components f/sub 0//x and (1-1/x)f/sub 0/ have a harmonic relation when the system reaches a steady state. The f/sub 0//x component can be mainly obtained at an output port of the frequency divider. The operation band was simulated using a SPICE II computer program. The designed bandwidth and conversion gain for the 1/4 frequency divider are 8.5-10.6 GHz and -3 dB, respectively. Based on the simulation, a GaAs monolithic analog 1/4 frequency divider was made and tested. The developed 1/4 frequency divider provides a 8.5-10.2-GHz operation bandwidth and --5+-1-dB conversion gain. The designed and experimental values are in good agreement. The frequency division band can be shifted to higher frequency (10.65-11.2 GHz) by adopting the external matching circuit at the GaAs chip output port. The proposed analog frequency divider circuit can be applied not only for 1/4 frequency division, but also for 1/n frequency division (interger n > 2).     

A photonic-link millimeter-wave mixer using cascaded optical modulators and harmonic carrier generation

Efficient frequency conversion into and out of the millimeter wave frequency band has been demonstrated using photonic link signal mixing with cascaded optical modulators. By adjusting the modulator bias point and RF drive power to the modulator introducing the local oscillator signal at f/sub LO/=8.8 GHz, frequency conversions from f/sub s/ to f/sub LO//spl plusmn/f/sub s/, sf/sub LO//spl plusmn/f/sub s/, and 4f/sub LO//spl plusmn/f/sub s/ with respective losses of 4.8, 6.3, and 7.5 dB have been demonstrated. The direct phase noise measurement of the optical RF signal at 2f/sub LO/=17.6 GHz with 1 kHz offset shows -89 dBc/Hz, limited by the RF drive source.     

Hot small-signal S-parameter measurements of power transistors operating under large-signal conditions in a load-pull environment for the study of nonlinear parametric interactions

This paper presents a setup that enables wide-band (in-band and out-of-band) measurements of hot small-signal S-parameters of nonlinear devices driven by a large-signal single tone (namely, the pump signal). A load-pull characterization is performed at the pump frequency (F/sub 0/), while hot small-signal S-parameters are measured with a perturbating signal at a frequency (f) by the use of a probe tone. Basically, the frequency of the probe tone is swept over a wide bandwidth (at the present time from 300 MHz up to F/sub 0//2). A higher frequency range, from near dc to KF/sub 0/, will be implemented in a similar manner. The measurement setup reported here is applied to on-wafer measurements of S-band HBTs. Hot small-signal S-parameter measurements versus large-signal load impedance and pump level will be shown. An application to the prediction of parametric oscillations will be demonstrated. A parametric oscillation predicted at 373 MHz is confirmed by spectrum measurements.     

New multirate bandpass sigma-delta modulators

A new architecture for fourth- and sixth-order bandpass sigma-delta (BP-SD) modulators is proposed here. The basic BP-SD modulator is obtained from its low-pass (LP) counterpart by means of the standard transformation z/sup -1/ /spl rarr/ -z/sup -2/, which transforms the integrators in the LP modulator into resonators in the BP modulator, and places the input signal band at the frequency f/sub s//4, where f/sub s/ is the sampling rate. In the proposed architecture, the second resonator (and the third one for the sixth-order case) is implemented using a two-path strategy, by means of two high-pass filters (whose poles are located at f/sub s//2) operating in a time-interleaved mode. However, unlike other BP-SD modulators using the two-path strategy, in our approach, the effective sampling frequency in the second resonator (and in the third one for the sixth-order case) is increased to 2/spl middot/f/sub s/ by maintaining the clock rate of the high-pass filters to f/sub s/ which, in turn, places their poles at f/sub s//2. The signal band in the input of the second resonator is moved from the center frequency f/sub s//4 to f/sub s//2 by a modulation process that separates the signal into their in-phase and quadrature components. Another demodulation process in the digital domain reverses this frequency translation of the signal band before the output signal is converted to the analog domain and fed back to the modulator input. A detailed theoretical analysis of the architecture is done in the paper. Owing to the multirate nature of the proposed modulators, simulation results show an improvement of approximately 12 dB in the input dynamic range (fourth-order case) when compared to conventional modulators of the same order clocked at the same frequency rate (in the first resonator).     

Capacitance Definitions for Parametric Operation (Correspondence)

The purpose of this note is to reconcile the various definitions of nonlinear or equivalent time-varying capacitance which appear in the literature concerned with parametric devices. The problem considered is one of a nonlinear reactive element, let us say a capacitance, which is pumped by strong pump source at frequency f/sub p/ and which couples two circuit modes at frequencies f/sub s and f/sub i/, usually called the signal and idling frequencies. For parametric operation we demand either f/sub p/=f/sub l/ + f/sub s/ or f/sub p/ = f/sub l - f/sub s/.     

Precise Design of a Bandpass Filter Using High-Q Dielectric Ring Resonators

A precise design is presented for a bandpass filter constructed by placing TE/sub 01delta/ dielectric ring resonators coaxially in a TE/sub 01/ cutoff circular waveguide. On the basis of a rigorous analysis by the mode- matching technique, the interresonator coupling coefficients are determined accurately from the calculation of two resonant frequencies f/sub sh/ and f/sub op/ when the structurally symmetric plane is short- and open-circuited. For the TE/sub 01delta/ ring resonator,the resonant frequency f/sub 0/, the temperature coefficient tau/sub f/, the unloaded Q(Q/sub u/), and the other resonances are also calculated accurately in a similar way. From the calculations, the optimum dimensions are determined to obtain the maximum Q/sub u/, as F/sub r/ = f/sub r/ /f/sub 0/ is kept constant, where f/sub r/ is the next higher resonant frequency the ring resonator using low-loss ceramics (epsilon/sub r/ = 24.3, tan delta = 5 x 10/sup -5/) has Q/sub u/ = 16800 at 12 GHz and tau/sub f/ = 0.1+-0.5 ppm/° C, while the rod one has Q/sub u/ = 14700. A four-stage Chebyshev filter having ripple of 0.04 dB and equiripple bandwidth of 27.3 MHz at f/sub 0/ =11.958 GHz is fabricated using these resonator; the measured frequency responses agree well with theory. The insertion loss is 0.9 dB, which corresponds to Q/sub u/ = 9800.     

Extended-stopband bandpass filter using both half- and quarter-wavelength resonators

A novel quasielliptic microstrip bandpass filter (BPF) using both half- and quarter-wavelength resonators is proposed. With the quarter-wavelength (/spl lambda//4) resonators placed in the interstage, the filter spurious passband can be pushed up to 3 f/sub 0/ where f/sub 0/ stands for the passband center frequency. To improve the stopband characteristics, a modified stopband-extended filter is implemented, utilizing the multiple transmission zeros placed at specified frequencies to achieve good frequency selectivity and out-of-band rejection. The modified filter provides a 22.5-dB rejection level from 1.14 f/sub 0/ to 5.2 f/sub 0/.     

Linear phase reconstruction filtering using a hold time longer than one sample period

In digital-to-analog converters (DACs), the sinc frequency response of the zeroth-order sample-and-hold causes a linear-phase notch response at f=1/T/sub h/, where T/sub h/ is the hold time. In this brief, this notch is used to attenuate the lowest image signal below the sampling frequency by increasing the hold time longer than one sample period. This is implemented by using two time-interleaved DACs and a gated summing circuit with programmable on-times. The level of the spurious signals caused by mismatches between the parallel branches are analyzed, and the operation of the principle is verified experimentally.     

The Dipolar Resonance of the Cylindrical Low-Pressure Arc Discharge

When an em wave of fixed frequency is incident on the cylindrical positive column of a low-pressure arc discharge, nearly complete absorption occurs at a definite value of discharge current I/sub 0/ as the discharge current is varied. I/sub 0/ yields a plasma electron density which corresponds to the well-known cylindrical, or dipolar, plasma resonance frequency f/sub 0/. The ratio f/sub p/ / f/sub 0/ where f/sub p/ is the ordinary (plane) plasma frequency, has been determined by others using a quasi-static approach. In this paper a dynamic approach is used, and comparison is made with the quasi-static approach. Agreement is within 3 per cent for values of /spl beta//sub 0/a less than 0.25. For beta//sub 0/a equal to 0.60, the discrepancy in the quasi-static method is 15 per cent. Theoretical calculations as well as experimental evidence indicate that the electron sheath, which exists on the outside surface of the positive column, plays a significant role in the location of the dipolar plasma resonance. Application of the results of this paper improve the agreement between theory and experiment for the Plasma Microwave Coupler described by Steier and Kaufman.     

Simultaneous all-optical frequency downconversion technique utilizing an SOA-MZI for WDM radio over fiber (RoF) applications

Simultaneous all-optical frequency-downconversion technique utilizing a semiconductor optical amplifier Mach-Zehnder interferometer (SOA-MZI) is experimentally demonstrated, and its application to a wavelength-division-multiplexing (WDM) radio over fiber (RoF) uplink is proposed. The conversion efficiencies from 22.5 (f/sub RF/) to 2.5 GHz (f/sub IF/=f/sub RF/-2f/sub LO/) are in the range from 1.5 to 3 dB for the optical RF wavelength between 1548 and 1558 nm. Error-free simultaneous all-optical frequency downconversion of the two WDM RoF upstream channels that carry 155-Mb/s differential phase-shift keying data at 22.5 GHz to an optical intermediate frequency signal having the frequency of 2.5 GHz with the power penalty less than 0.1 dB at the bit error rate of 10/sup -8/ is achieved.     

A novel frequency doubler using feedforward technique and defected ground structure

A novel design of frequency doubler using feedforward technique and defected ground structure (DGS) is proposed. The feedforward loop in the proposed frequency doubler suppresses the fundamental component (f/sub o/), and the DGS diminishes the higher order harmonics such as third, fourth, and so on. Due to the combination of feedforward structure and DGS, only the doubled frequency component (2f/sub o/) appears at the output port and the other unwanted components are suppressed excellently. A frequency doubler is designed at 1.85GHz of f/sub o/ by the proposed technique and measured. The measured output power of 2f/sub o/ is -3 dBm when the input power is 0 dBm. The obtained suppression of f/sub o/, 3f/sub o/, and 4f/sub o/ are 42.9, 19.2, and 29.7dB, respectively.     

Estimation of Q-factors and resonant frequencies

We estimate the quality factor Q and resonant frequency f/sub 0/ of a microwave cavity based on observations of a resonance curve on an equally spaced frequency grid. The observed resonance curve is the squared magnitude of an observed complex scattering parameter. We characterize the variance of the additive noise in the observed resonance curve parametrically. Based on this noise characterization, we estimate Q and f/sub 0/ and other associated model parameters using the method of weighted least squares (WLS). Based on asymptotic statistical theory, we also estimate the one-sigma uncertainty of Q and f/sub 0/. In a simulation study, the WLS method outperforms the 3-dB method and the Estin method. For the case of measured resonances, we show that the WLS method yields the most precise estimates for the resonant frequency and quality factor, especially for resonances that are undercoupled. Given that the resonance curve is sampled at a fixed number of equally spaced frequencies in the neighborhood of the resonant frequency, we determine the optimal frequency spacing in order to minimize the asymptotic standard deviation of the estimate of either Q or f/sub 0/.     

Trade-offs and challenges of short channel design on millimetre-wave power performance of GaN HFETs

For the application of undoped AlGaN/GaN HFETs to Ka-band millimetre(mm)-wave high frequency power performance, the maximum frequency of oscillation, f/sub max/, was found to be seriously limited by gate resistance and output conductance with the gate length down to 0.1 /spl mu/m. This makes it difficult for devices to achieve both high f/sub T/ and f/sub max/ at the same time. However, the technology of field-plate gate, to increase device breakdown voltage, will add extra gate capacitance. It makes the optimum gate structure design more important. The influence of gate metal thickness and gate length on f/sub max/ based on the lumped small signal circuit model analysis and the possibility to obtain high f/sub T/ and f/sub max/ simultaneously for the GaN material structure is discussed for application to the Ka-band mm-wave operating system.     

A dual-frequency Wilkinson power divider: for a frequency and its first harmonic

A Wilkinson power divider operating not only at one frequency f/sub 0/, but also at its first harmonic 2f/sub 0/ is presented. This power divider consists of two branches of impedance transformer, each of which consists of two sections of 1/6-wave transmission-line with different characteristic impedance. The two outputs are connected through a resistor, an inductor, and a capacitor. All the features of a conventional Wilkinson power divider, such as an equal power split, impedance matching at all ports, and a good isolation between the two output ports, can be fulfilled at f/sub 0/ and 2f/sub 0/, simultaneously.     

Robust uncertainty principles: exact signal reconstruction from highly incomplete frequency information

This paper considers the model problem of reconstructing an object from incomplete frequency samples. Consider a discrete-time signal f/spl isin/C/sup N/ and a randomly chosen set of frequencies /spl Omega/. Is it possible to reconstruct f from the partial knowledge of its Fourier coefficients on the set /spl Omega/? A typical result of this paper is as follows. Suppose that f is a superposition of |T| spikes f(t)=/spl sigma//sub /spl tau//spl isin/T/f(/spl tau/)/spl delta/(t-/spl tau/) obeying |T|/spl les/C/sub M//spl middot/(log N)/sup -1/ /spl middot/ |/spl Omega/| for some constant C/sub M/>0. We do not know the locations of the spikes nor their amplitudes. Then with probability at least 1-O(N/sup -M/), f can be reconstructed exactly as the solution to the /spl lscr//sub 1/ minimization problem. In short, exact recovery may be obtained by solving a convex optimization problem. We give numerical values for C/sub M/ which depend on the desired probability of success. Our result may be interpreted as a novel kind of nonlinear sampling theorem. In effect, it says that any signal made out of |T| spikes may be recovered by convex programming from almost every set of frequencies of size O(|T|/spl middot/logN). Moreover, this is nearly optimal in the sense that any method succeeding with probability 1-O(N/sup -M/) would in general require a number of frequency samples at least proportional to |T|/spl middot/logN. The methodology extends to a variety of other situations and higher dimensions. For example, we show how one can reconstruct a piecewise constant (one- or two-dimensional) object from incomplete frequency samples - provided that the number of jumps (discontinuities) obeys the condition above - by minimizing other convex functionals such as the total variation of f.     

Equivalent Circuit of the Bolometer Detector

A small-signal dynamic equivalent circuit is established for the output voltage of a dc-biased bolometer (barretter) detector. The circuit consists of a voltage generator /spl upsi//sub g/, whose output is an undistorted replica of the incident RF-power modulation envelope, followed by a series resistor R/sub 1/ of dynamic origin, a shunt capacitor C that represents heat storage in the bolometer wire, and a series resistor R/sub 0/ equal to the dc resistance, usually 200 ohms. The resistance R/sub 1/ is independent of signal level, and is typically about 220 ohms for an 8.75-mA bolometer and about 120 ohms for a 4.5-mA bolometer. At a modulation frequency f/sub m/ near 0 Hz, the equivalent audio source impedance of the bolometer is R/sub 1/ +R/sub 0/. The common belief that the source impedance is R/sub 0/ in the weak-signal case is, therefore, refuted. Formulas are derived giving v/sub g/ / /P/sub RF/ and R/sub 1/ as functions of basic, easily determined bolometer parameters. The time constant for open-circuit load is /spl tau//sub oc/= R/sub 1/C, where /spl tau//sub oc/ is determined best by measurement, since catalog values of /spl tau//sub oc/ often are seriously in error. The capacitance is C=/spl tau//sub oc/ / /R/sub 1/. With one type of bolometer /spl tau//sub oc/ measures about 110 /spl mu/s, while various catalogs state values of 250 to 350 /spl mu/s. The equivalent circuit is confirmed quantitatively by measurements of output voltage and source impedance versus modulation frequency.     

Equivalent Circuit of Orthogonal-Loop-Coupled Magnetic Resonance Filters and Bandwidth Narrowing Due to Coupling Inductance

The equivalent circuit of an orthogonal-loop-coupled magnetic resonance filter is shown to consist of a gyrator, two ferrite-induced inductances, and two coupling loop inductances. The effects of the coupling inductances on the passband and stopband responses are shown to be significant by means of calculations based on this equivalent circuit. It is proved that the maximum passband bandwidth /spl Delta//spl conint//sub -3dB/ = /spl conint//sub 0/ (L/sub f/ / L/sub c/), where /spl conint//sub 0/, is the center frequency, and L/sub f/ and L/sub c/ the ferrite-induced and the coupling-loop inductance, respectively. Other unusual insertion-loss characteristics of this filter which differ from those of a conventional reciprocal-element bandpass filter are shown. Finally, a test circuit for determining experimentally the coupling inductance ratio L/sub c/ /L/sub f/ and the external Q, Q/sub f/ of a ferrite resonator is presented.     

RF performance and modeling of Si/SiGe resonant interband tunneling diodes

The RF performance of two different Si-based resonant interband tunneling diodes (RITD) grown by low-temperature molecular beam epitaxy (LT-MBE) were studied. An RITD with an active region of B /spl delta/-doping plane/2 nm i-Si/sub 0.5/Ge/sub 0.5//1 nm i-Si/P /spl delta/-doping plane yielded a peak-to-valley current ratio (PVCR) of 1.14, resistive cutoff frequency (f/sub r0/) of 5.6 GHz, and a speed index of 23.3 mV/ps after rapid thermal annealing at 650/spl deg/C for 1 min. To the authors' knowledge, these are the highest reported values for any epitaxially grown Si-based tunnel diode. Another RITD design with an active region of 1 nm p+ Si/sub 0.6/Ge/sub 0.4//B /spl delta/-doping plane/4-nm iSi/sub 0.6/Ge/sub 0.4//2 nm i-Si/P /spl delta/-doping plane and annealed at 825/spl deg/C for 1 min had a PVCR of 2.9, an f/sub r0/ of 0.4 GHz, and a speed index of 0.2 mV/ps. A small signal model was established to fit the measured S/sub 11/ data for both device designs. Approaches to increase f/sub r0/ are suggested based on the comparison between these two diodes. The two devices exhibit substantially different junction capacitance/bias relationships, which may suggest the confined states in the /spl delta/-doped quantum well are preserved after annealing at lower temperatures but are reduced at higher temperature annealing. A comprehensive dc/RF semi-physical model was developed and implemented in Agilent advanced design system (ADS) software. Instabilities in the negative differential resistance (NDR) region during dc measurements were then simulated.     

Computer-Aided Design of Three-Port Waveguide Junction Circulators

The complete performance of a lossless three-port H-plane waveguide junction loaded coaxially with various inhomogeneous ferrite cylanders has been evaluated over the waveguide bandwidth and compared with experiment. Qualitative agreement between the predicted and measured performance was generally good using only the first three modes, n=0/spl plusmn/1. It has been shown theoretically and verified experimentally that if the 4/spl pi/M/sub s/ of a homogeneous rod or the internal field is increased, the circulation frequency f/sub 0/ increases; conversely, if the pemittivity is increased, f/sub 0/ decreases. These conflicting effects are modified when the magnetization 4/spl pi/M/sub s/ and permittivity /spl epsiv/ are inhomogeneous. For example, if the 4/spl pi/M/sub s/(/spl gamma/) is small at the outer surface of the rod (with permittivity held constant), the effect on f/sub 0/ is very small; but if 4/spl pi/M/sub s/(spl gamma) approaches zero for /spl gamma/ small, then f/sub 0/ may decrease significantly. On the other hand, if /spl epsiv//sub/spl gamma//(/spl gamma/) approaches unity near the outer surface of the rod, f/sub 0/ may increase significantly; but if /spl epsiv//sub/spl gamma//(/spl gamma/) approaches unity near the center of the rod, f/sub 0/ is affected relatively little. The inhomogeneous structure has also shown that decreasing the ferrite volume may improve the performance, and high-power applications are suggested. With a conducting pin down the center of the ferrite, relative bandwidths of 40-50 percent are predicted.     

Prime-length real-valued polynomial residue division algorithms

One class of efficient algorithms for computing a discrete Fourier transform (DFT) is based on a recursive polynomial factorization of the polynomial 1-z/sup -N/. The Bruun algorithm is a typical example of such algorithms. Previously, the Bruun algorithm, which is applicable only when system lengths are powers of two in its original form, is generalized and modified to be applicable to the case when the length is other than a power of two. This generalized algorithm consists of transforms T/sub d,f/ with prime d and real f in the range 0/spl les/f<0.5. T/sub d,0/ computes residues X(z)mod(1-z/sup -2/) and X(z)mod(1-2 cos(/spl pi/k/d)z/sup -1/+z/sup -2/), k=1, 2, ..., d-1, and T/sub d,f/ (f /spl ne/0) computes residues X(z)mod(1-2cos(2/spl pi/(f+k)/d)z/sup -1/+z/sup -2/), k=0, 1, ..., d-1 for a given real signal X(z) of length 2d. The purpose of this paper is to find efficient algorithms for T/sub d,f/. First, polynomial factorization algorithms are derived for T/sub d,0/ and T/sub d,1/4/. When f is neither 0 nor 1/4, it is not feasible to derive a polynomial factorization algorithm. Two different implementations of T/sub d,f/ for such f are derived. One implementation realizes T/sub d,f/ via a d-point DFT, for which a variety of fast algorithms exist. The other implementation realizes T/sub d,f/ via T/sub d, 1/4/, for which the polynomial factorization algorithm exists. Comparisons show that for d/spl ges/5, these implementations achieve better performance than computing each output of T/sub d,f/ separately.