This paper presents a through-type harmonic transponder for S-band nonlinear radar. To increase the operating frequency range, a 2-stage L-shaped matching network was configured for the input and output matching networks. In previous studies, conventional harmonic transponders were configured with λ/4 stubs in the input and output matching networks to minimize the influence of these networks because the impedance mismatch suppresses the second harmonic and fundamental signals. However, in this design, a λ/4 open stub was utilized at the output and configured with the output matching network to alleviate the insertion loss of the additional open stub. For verification, the proposed circuit was implemented with the circuit size of 37.6 mm×16.1 mm. The measurement results show that the conversion gain is maintained over −15 dB for frequencies between 2.8~3.8 GHz at −5.5 dBm and −17.5~11 dBm at 3.1 GHz of input power.
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