New integrated subsystems for millimeter wave applications

Abstract

This paper will give a general view of the new developments of integrated subsystems for millimeter wave applications in Europe. Since the first developments of the microstrip and the finline technologies for millimeter wave applications, important progresses have been observed in the mastery and the affordability of these technologies, as well as for the search and the development of new concepts. We describe first the new developments of subassemblies using microstrip and finline technologies, mostly for military applications, but also for some civilian ones. We will see, afterwards, that the emergence of new applications, especially civilian, and the search for cost reductions, have favoured the appearence of new principles of integration, among which the most promising are quasi-optical techniques. The need for cost reductions have also favoured R&D activities in the field of monolithic millimeter wave circuits development. Two types of technologies are concerned: microwave monolithic integrated circuits on GaAs (mmlcs) and silicon monolithic millimeter wave integrated circuits (SlMMWlCS), silicon having very interesting properties at such high frequencies.