A compact 5-Watt low-loss and low-leakage reflective limiter for C-band

Abstract

This paper introduces a reflective, low insertion loss transistor-based limiter based on a new leakage reduction method. The effectiveness of the proposed limiter has been confirmed through simulation and measurement results. Due to its low insertion loss, the proposed limiter is suitable for low-noise receivers. It reflects approximately 70% of the input power, leading to lower temperature rise, when subjected to high incident power, compared to absorptive limiters. Fabricated using a low-noise 0.15-μm AlGaAs–InGaAs pseudomorphic HEMT (pHEMT) technology, this design allows for co-design with a low noise amplifier (LNA) on the same die. Measurement results have demonstrated that the proposed limiter can withstand up to 5-W continuous-wave (CW) input power without failure in a compact chip area of only 0.8 mm2. Additionally, measurements show a minimum insertion loss of 0.83 dB with 0.17 dB ripple over the frequency range of 4–6 GHz.