Gallium Arsenide Monolithic Microwave Research Articles

Filter Design for High Frequency Applications

An on chip Radio Frequency(RF) latent band sidestep channel is intended for different groups of frequencies dependent on a three post LC low pass get out and Direct Current (DC) barring capacitors that is prepared by means of Gallium Arsenide (GaAs) Monolithic Microwave consolidated Circuit innovation. The utilization of this model, the RF band skip channel with a tuneable focus recurrence and a legitimate data transfer capacity might be figured it out. A planar winding inductor required on this design and the format of the channel out is limited. The addition misfortune is improved and Substrate misfortunes might be limited. The recreation bring about the schematic and configuration of the band pass channel out that is executed by means of Agilent design software gadget. This sort of LC band pass might be actualized in RF control speaker to the front line report and radar machine for achieving the recurrence determination with an incredible advantage of chosen signal.

Millimeter-wave system-on-chip advancement for fusion plasma diagnostics

Recent advances in radio-frequency system-on-chip technology have provided mm-wave fusion plasma diagnostics with the capability to overcome major challenges such as space inefficiency, inflexible installation, sensitivity, susceptibility to EMI, and prohibitively high cost of conventional discrete component assemblies as higher imaging resolution and data accuracy are achieved by increasing the number of channels. Nowadays, shrinking transistor gate lengths on fabrication techniques have enabled hundreds of GHz operation, which is suitable for millimeter-wave diagnostics on current and future tokamaks. The Davis Millimeter Wave Research Center (DMRC) has successfully developed V-band (55-75 GHz) transmitter and receiver chips for Microwave Imaging Reflectometer (MIR) instruments. The transmitter can illuminate 8 different frequencies simultaneously within 55-75 GHz. Moreover, the receiver has the capability to amplify the reflected signal (>30 dB) while offering 10-30× reduction in noise temperature compared to current MIR instruments. Plasma diagnostics requires ultra-wideband (more than 20 GHz) operation which is approximately nine times wider bandwidth than the recent commercial impetus for communication systems. Current efforts are underway for gallium-arsenide monolithic microwave integrated circuit receiver chips at W-band (75-110 GHz) and F-band (90-140 GHz) permitting measurements at higher toroidal magnetic fields.

Impact of Ground Via Placement in On-Wafer Contact Pad Design up to 325 GHz

The design of RF contact pads is a challenging task, especially when operating in the high millimeter-wave frequency range up to 325 GHz. The pads need to fulfill low loss, low distortion, probe ability, and packagability. Compared to the dimensions of the circuit components, the contact pads are rather large because the pad miniaturization is limited by the available probing and packaging technologies. This large spatial extent makes the contact pads prone to the excitation of parasitic modes, which deteriorate the overall circuit performance. This paper presents a comprehensive study on these parasitic modes and acquires analytical and numerical solutions to estimate the critical frequencies. For verification, two different contact pad structures were realized using an indium gallium arsenide (InGaAs) monolithic microwave integrated circuit process, with a substrate thickness of 50 $\mu \text{m}$ . The test structures were characterized up to 325 GHz in an on-wafer measurement setup. Despite the good agreement between measurement and simulation, detailed investigations of fabrication and measurement tolerances were carried out to estimate the robustness of the electrical performance. The optimized via configuration achieves resonance-free behavior of the pad over the full measurement frequency range with less than 1.8-dB loss per probe-to-pad contact at 325 GHz.

Low-noise heterodyne receiver for electron cyclotron emission imaging and microwave imaging reflectometry.

The critical component enabling electron cyclotron emission imaging (ECEI) and microwave imaging reflectometry (MIR) to resolve 2D and 3D electron temperature and density perturbations is the heterodyne imaging array that collects and downconverts radiated emission and/or reflected signals (50-150 GHz) to an intermediate frequency (IF) band (e.g. 0.1-18 GHz) that can be transmitted by a shielded coaxial cable for further filtering and detection. New circuitry has been developed for this task, integrating gallium arsenide (GaAs) monolithic microwave integrated circuits (MMICs) mounted on a liquid crystal polymer (LCP) substrate. The improved topology significantly increases electromagnetic shielding from out-of-band interference, leads to 10× improvement in the signal-to-noise ratio, and dramatic cost savings through integration. The current design, optimized for reflectometry and edge radiometry on mid-sized tokamaks, has demonstrated >20 dB conversion gain in upper V-band (60-75 GHz). Implementation of the circuit in a multi-channel electron cyclotron emission imaging (ECEI) array will improve the diagnosis of edge-localized modes and fluctuations of the high-confinement, or H-mode, pedestal.

High dynamic range microwave power sensor with thermopile and curled cantilever beam

A high dynamic range microwave power sensor compatible with the gallium arsenide monolithic microwave integrated circuit process is presented. The power sensor consists of a thermoelectric power sensor and a capacitive power sensor for low and high power detection, respectively. To improve the dynamic range and optimise the impedance matching characteristic, the curled cantilever beam is utilised and the slot width of the coplanar waveguide transmission line is modified. The measured return loss is lower than –25.5 dB at 8–12 GHz. The output of the power sensor shows good linearity with the incident radio frequency power. For the incident power from 0.1 to 100 mW, the obtained sensitivities by a thermoelectric power sensor are about 0.0842, 0.0752 and 0.0701 mV/mW at 8, 10 and 12 GHz, respectively. For the incident power from 100 to 400 mW, the measured sensitivities by the capacitive power senor are about 0.0400, 0.0301 and 0.199 fF/mW at 8, 10 and 12 GHz, respectively.

A 180–196 GHz image‐reject Schottky‐diode MMIC mixer

AbstractThis article describes a novel single‐sideband, Schottky diode integrated circuit mixer. The subharmonically pumped mixer, operating on the 4th local oscillator (LO) harmonic, was developed for use in millimeter‐wave receiver and transmitter applications in the 180–196 GHz band. The gallium arsenide (GaAs) monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC) was fabricated using a standard commercial process. This is the first time a fully integrated, 4th harmonic image reject mixer has been reported in this frequency range. The mixer operates with a fixed pump frequency of 47 GHz (corresponding to an LO of 188 GHz) and pump power level of +18.7 dBm. For RF signals in the range 180–196 GHz, the conversion loss is typically 21 dB over the 1–8 GHz IF corresponding to the desired sideband. Under these conditions, high rejection of the undesired sideband is achieved. The rejection is typically >15 dB, over the same IF frequency range, relative to the desired signal. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 49: 2319–2322, 2007; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/mop.22771

An MMIC Pulse Generator Using Dual Nonlinear Transmission Lines

We present a novel nonlinear transmission line (NLTL) pulse generator using dual-NLTL, true-time-delay, waveform-alignment technique, realized in Gallium Arsenide (GaAs) monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC) technology. The diodes in these two NLTLs have opposite polarities in layout. Therefore, they are responsible for sharpening the two signals' rising and falling edges separately. A simple, low-cost, wideband combiner is adopted to combine the two fine aligned waveforms without introducing much distortion to the wideband signal. As a result, a sharp pulse is obtained with both edges compressed. With a sinusoidal signal as the input to the fabricated MMIC, a fall time of around 12 ps and rise time of 14 ps were measured at the output. This MMIC is a candidate for pulse or comb generators in many commercial and military applications

A 80–100 GHz image‐reject passive‐HEMT mixer

AbstractThis paper describes a single‐sideband, subharmonically pumped, passive‐HEMT integrated circuit mixer developed for use in transceivers for point‐to‐point telecommunications in the 83–87 GHz band. The gallium arsenide (GaAs) monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC) can readily be fabricated using a standard commercial process. The mixer performs equally well for either up‐ or down‐ conversion. For RF signals in the range 80–100 GHz, the conversion loss is typically 20 dB with LO drive in the range 40–50 GHz. Under these conditions, high rejection of the undesired sideband (>18 dB), relative to the desired signal, is achieved. For up‐conversion, 1 dB compression of the mixer gain typically occurs at −12 dBm RF output power. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 48: 2429–2433, 2006; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/mop.21953

A 176‐190 GHz transmitter module using indium phosphide and gallium arsenide MMICs

AbstractThis paper describes a double‐sideband, upconverting transmitter module with a potential application to future‐generation point‐to‐point telecommunications in the 176–190‐GHz band. The multichip module incorporates indium phosphide (InP) and gallium arsenide (GaAs) monolithic microwave integrated circuits (MMICs). It is believed that this is the first time an all‐MMIC transmitter module has been reported in this frequency band. The small‐signal up‐conversion gain falls approximately monotonically from 0 dB for output at 176 GHz, to −15 dB for output at 190 GHz. The input frequency range covers 0.5 to 9 GHz and the local oscillator can be tuned from 45 to 47 GHz. Gain compression of 1‐dB occurs at an output power of −12 dBm at 176 GHz, decreasing to −20 dBm at 190 GHz. Output 3rd‐order intercept point is +1 dBm at 176 GHz, decreasing to −12 dBm at 190 GHz. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 48: 338–341, 2006; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/mop.21343

W‐band transmitter module using gallium arsenide mmics

AbstractThis paper describes a high‐gain, single‐sideband, upconverting transmitter module developed for point‐to‐point telecommunications in the 83–87‐GHz band. Four gallium arsenide (GaAs) monolithic microwave integrated circuits (MMICs), which can readily be fabricated using standard commercial processes, are used in the multichip module. The transmitter exhibits a typical lower‐sideband up‐conversion gain of 20 dB and a typical output power of +5 dBm (at −1‐dB gain compression) between 83 and 87 GHz. Suppression of the higher sideband is greater than −15 dB. The two‐tone, 3rd‐order intercept point is typically +15 dBm for a tone spacing of 100 MHz at the lower sideband IF input. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 42: 210–213, 2004; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/mop.20255

W‐band receiver module using indium phosphide and gallium arsenide MMICs

AbstractThis paper describes a low‐noise, high‐gain, single‐sideband, downconverting receiver module developed for point‐to‐point telecommunications in the 82–104‐GHz range. Two indium phosphide (InP) and two gallium arsenide (GaAs) monolithic microwave integrated circuits (MMICs) are used in the multi‐chip module. For RF frequencies in the 82–104‐GHz range and within a 1–3‐GHz IF band, the receiver exhibits a typical single‐sideband down‐conversion gain between 15 and 20 dB and a typical noise figure of between 4 and 5 dB. In the same frequency range, the suppression of the unwanted sideband is typically −15 dB or more. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 42: 92–95, 2004; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/mop.20218

Reliability life-testing and failure-analysis of GaAs monolithic Ku-band driver amplifiers

'Gallium-arsenide monolithic microwave integrated-circuit (MMIC) Ku-band driver amplifiers were life tested under accelerated high temperature, DC and RF conditions until failure. These MMIC are used in various applications such as radar and satellite communication systems. The failure mechanisms controlling their reliability must be understood in order to improve the lifetime for these and other applications. This paper discusses the experimental procedures, statistical evaluation of the data and failure analysis of the devices. To the authors' knowledge, this is the first report of RF life testing of dual-gate driver amplifiers. The majority of the devices failed catastrophically due to high drain current, while others failed parametrically due to low output power. Failure analysis indicates that degradation of the Si/sub 3/N/sub 4/ dielectric layer to be the main failure mechanism in these MMIC. Statistical analysis revealed an activation energy of 0.87 eV and a median lifetime of 5.8/spl middot/10/sup 4/ hours at 140/spl deg/C channel temperature, which is consistent with surface-phenomena failure mechanisms.

Review of semiconductor microelectronic test structures with applications to infrared detector materials and processes

The impact of microelectronic test structures, as they have been applied to silicon integrated circuits (ICS) and gallium arsenide monolithic microwave integrated circuits (MMICS), is reviewed. General principles for the use of test structures with possible applications to infrared (IR) detector technology based on HgCdTe and other materials are emphasized. The uses of test structures for Si and GaAs, test chip design methodology and some examples of how test structures have been applied for process control and to increase yield are discussed. Specific test structures and techniques that have been applied to IR detectors are also reviewed. The basic design considerations and measurements possible with each class of test structure are discussed. The important experience of the Si and GaAs industries, applicable to IR detectors, is that significant yield improvement is possible with improved process control using test structures. Increased research efforts to expand the applications of test structures to IR detector manufacture are indicated.

Flip chip-bonded GaAs MMICs compatible with foundry manufacture

A foundry-compatible flip-chip bonding technology has been developed for gallium arsenide monolithic microwave integrated circuits (MMICs). Metallurgical interactions between lead-tin solder and gold-based circuitry were prevented by the inclusion of a pinhole-free metal barrier layer. The solder bonds were extremely reproducible and provided a self-alignment capability at the flip-chip bonding stage. Microwave measurements showed test components to have more uniform characteristics than their wire-bonded counterparts and MMIC amplifiers to have the same behaviour in flip-chip or wirebonded form. All the bonds on a chip were made in a single solder reflow operation, representing a considerable saving in assembly effort.

Technology, circuit design and applications of GaAs MMICs

Gallium arsenide monolithic microwave integrated circuits (GaAs MMICs) are a means of utilising the high-mobility, high-frequency aspects of the GaAs MESFET together with the semi-insultaing properties of gallium arsenide to form a low-loss integrated circuit with active elements. Novel semiconductor growth structures allow devices with cut-off frequencies well into the millimetre wave ranges to be fabricated, with dramatic improvements in gain and noise figure. Multilevel structures also permit very high circuit densities, so complete receivers and phased-array radar multifunction circuits can be made with high repeatability in a few square millimetres. Such advances, however, are only possible because of major investments in component characterisation and product consistency.

On‐board frequency demultiplexing by magnetostatic wave technologies

AbstractPossible magnetostatic wave (MSW) implementations of variable bandwidth variable centre frequency (VBVCF) on‐board demultiplexers are presented. Hybrid technologies using magnetic thin films in conjunction with gallium arsenide (GaAs) monolithic microwave integrated circuits (MMIC) are introduced. New areas of research to advance the state of the art in this field are identified.

Sub-half micrometer gate lift-off by three layer resist process via electron beam lithography for gallium arsenide monolithic microwave integrated circuits (MIMICs) : R M NAGARAJAN, S D RASK, M R KING, T K YARD (Gallium Arsenide Components Group, Unisys Corp., Eagan, MN, USA) Proc. SPIE — Int. Soc. Opt. Eng. (USA), vol. 923, pp. 194–200 (1988). (Electron-Beam, X-Ray, and Ion-Beam

Sub-half micrometer gate lift-off by three layer resist process via electron beam lithography for gallium arsenide monolithic microwave integrated circuits (MIMICs) : R M NAGARAJAN, S D RASK, M R KING, T K YARD (Gallium Arsenide Components Group, Unisys Corp., Eagan, MN, USA) Proc. SPIE — Int. Soc. Opt. Eng. (USA), vol. 923, pp. 194–200 (1988). (Electron-Beam, X-Ray, and Ion-Beam

Electron beam/optical hybrid lithography for the production of gallium arsenide monolithic microwave integrated circuits (MIMICs) : R M NAGARAJAN, S D RASK (Gallium Arsenide Components Group, Unisys Corp., Eagan, MN, USA) Proc. SPIE — Int. Soc. Opt. Eng. (USA), vol. 923, pp. 266–273 (1988). (Electron-Beam, X-Ray, and Ion-Beam Technology: Submicrometer Lithographies VII, Santa Clara, CA, USA, 2–4 March 1988)

Electron beam/optical hybrid lithography for the production of gallium arsenide monolithic microwave integrated circuits (MIMICs) : R M NAGARAJAN, S D RASK (Gallium Arsenide Components Group, Unisys Corp., Eagan, MN, USA) Proc. SPIE — Int. Soc. Opt. Eng. (USA), vol. 923, pp. 266–273 (1988). (Electron-Beam, X-Ray, and Ion-Beam Technology: Submicrometer Lithographies VII, Santa Clara, CA, USA, 2–4 March 1988)

Novel coupler for gallium arsenide monolithic microwave integrated circuit applications

A novel type of coupled line structure has been used on a GaAs monolithic microwave integrated circuit to realise a 90° coupler operating over 2 to 10 GHz. The multilayer nature of the GaAs IC has been used to realise quasiplanar broadside coupled lines. The coupler has been folded to make it small and measures only 1.0×0.8 mm.

A manufacturing process for gallium arsenide monolithic microwave integrated circuits

Over the last several years, Optotek has successfully developed the capability to design and process high-frequency x-band monolithic microwave integrated circuits. A process for fabricating active devices and passive elements is described. In addition, dc and microwave measurements are presented.