On‐chip Blumlein pulse generator

Abstract

A CMOS Blumlein generator including a two-stacked-metal–oxide semiconductor field effect transistor high-voltage switch, a Blumlein pulse-forming-line (PFL) network and an on-chip Klophenstein taper is presented. The Klophenstein taper is used to convert the high-impedance load to 50 Ω. The Blumlein pulse generator is fabricated in a 0.13 µm CMOS process. Gaussian-like pulses of 725 mV peak-to-peak amplitude, ∼126 ps duration and 3.18 GHz bandwidth are measured on a 50 Ω load (including the losses of the probes, cables and pads). After de-embedding the connection system and Klophenstein taper, the pulses of 1.88 V and 114 ps duration are obtained, which are higher than the rated operating power supply of the given process.