Microwave Integrated Circuit Technology Research Articles

Lester Eastman and the Monolithic Microwave Integrated Circuit Technology [Speaker’s Corner

Lester Eastman and the Monolithic Microwave Integrated Circuit Technology [Speaker’s Corner

A 5G beam-steering microstrip array antenna using both-sided microwave integrated circuit technology

In this paper a beam steering 2×2 microstrip array antenna is proposed and simulated for the 5G sub-6 GHz frequency band. The array antenna is designed at the resonant frequency of 3.5 GHz. The antenna has four patches excited by two microstrip lines. Microstrip lines on top of teflon substrate of 0.8 mm height and slot line in the ground plane makes a hybrid junction. The design uses both sided microwave integrated circuit (MIC) to feed signal to the patch elements. This designed array antenna has the beam steering capability of maximum -17º to +17º while keeping the side lobe gain below 10 dB. The simulation results show that the array antenna is designed through good input impedance matching. The antenna has a return loss of -43 dB at center frequency 3.5 GHz. The results also show that the array antenna has a high gain of 12.57 dBi and directivity of 25.11 dB. The maximum gain of this antenna is 24.1 dB at -17º and +17º. The proposed work is simulated on keysight technologies advanced designed system (ADS).

Compact hand-guided 3D scanning terahertz sensor platforms with 3D-printed aspherical telecentric f-θ lens

AbstractWe report on the development of a handheld three-dimensional (3D) terahertz scanning system with an aspherical telecentric 3D-printed f-θ lens using selective laser sintering. The lens covers a broader scan line of 50 mm with its larger aperture, compared to the 20 mm range in our initial work, which was presented at the European Microwave Week 2021. In order to evaluate the adaptability of the optomechanical components with different sensor units, two different integrated frequency-modulated continuous wave radar modules based on monolithic microwave integrated circuit technology, operating in W- and D-bands are tested within the measurement scheme. The optomechanical part consists of a galvanometer scanner mirror and the f-θ lens. The optical system enables B-scans perpendicular to the manual translational movement of the sensor unit by its user. An integrated guiding wheel system with rotary encoder makes it possible to correlate the measurement points to their respective locations, enabling complete 3D volumetric inspection of the corresponding structures, which is particularly useful for the inspection along cracks and welds.

An improved 2×2 array antenna using both-sided microwave integrated circuit technology for circular polarization

<span lang="EN-US">A circularly polarized microstrip patch array antenna using both-sided microwave integrated circuit (MIC) technology with a triple feed network has been proposed in this article. The antenna elements, feed structure and both-sided <a name="_Hlk112828933"></a>MIC technology are used and arranged in such a way to obtain circular polarization alongside high gain without using an external matching circuit. The 50 Ω microstrip line is used to energize the antenna where the antenna’s total feed network is made up of both series and parallel combinations of microstrip and slot line. The antenna was realized using Teflon glass fiber substrate </span><em><span lang="EN-US">(ε<sub>r</sub>)</span></em><span lang="EN-US">=2.15 with a thickness of 0.8 mm. The antenna has some splendid parameters including S<sub>11</sub> of less than -35 dB, a gain of 12 dBi with an omnidirectional pattern and an axial ratio of 0.7 dB at the operating frequency. The antenna possesses a bandwidth of 430 MHz (4.22%) after operating at X-band in the frequency spectrum. The antenna’s simulated parameters were investigated with the help of advanced design system (ADS) simulation software in microwave momentum mode.</span>

Theoretical and Experimental Investigations of an Integrated Microwave Power, Frequency, and Phase Detector for X-Band Applications

In this article, we present an integrated microwave power, frequency, and phase detector by GaAs monolithic microwave integrated circuits technology. The novelty of the reported detector is carefully designed by cascading a micromachined six-port coupler, a power divider, three power combiners, and four thermoelectric power sensors to realize microwave power, phase, and frequency detection. Compared with previous study, the reported microwave integrated detector has a more compact design and high-power-handling capacity. The advantage of the proposed technique is that the three parameters (power, frequency, and phase) of microwave signals are directly measured via the output of the thermovoltage. This makes the integrated microwave detection system more suitable for systems with complex requirements, such as radar systems. The experimental results demonstrate that the output thermovoltage and incident microwave power exhibit good linearity over a dynamic range of 0.1–1000 mW. Also, the measured sensitivities are 22.9, 27.2, and <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$33.7~\mu \text{V}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> /mW at 8, 10, and 12 GHz, respectively. A new method based on phase comparison is proposed for frequency detection. Also, the measured sensitivity is <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$9.42~^{\circ }$ </tex-math></inline-formula> /GHz over <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${X}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> -band. By introducing the reference signal, the function of phase detection is achieved based on the principle of vector synthesis over a dynamic range of 0°–360°. Also, the measured sensitivity is better than 98.38 <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\mu \text{V}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> /° at 500 mW. Furthermore, an integrated detection model is also proposed based on the microwave network analysis. The experimental results agree well with the proposed model. The results would be beneficial to improve future microwave integrated detector designs.

A gain enhanced linear polarization switchable array antenna with switching diodes

In this article, an array antenna possessing linear polarization switchable ability with enhanced gain is proposed by employing 4-patch elements in square shape. The 4-elements were arranged on the upper plane of the antenna where edge to edge distances were set to be 0.8λ of its operating frequency. The radio frequency signal was fed to energize the patch elements by means of a feed circuit which was realized by the both-sided microwave integrated circuit technology. In addition, polarization switching is done by simply utilizing diode at the corner of the elements as switching elements to perform beam tilting. The incorporation of extra Magic-T circuit to feed dc bias signal to the diodes helps to achieve improved isolation between feeding signal and the isolation was found to be less than −25 dB. The array antenna was designed to operate at 10.2 GHz and the dimensions of the patch elements was chosen to be 9.4 × 9.4 mm2. A Teflon glass fiber of 0.8 mm was used as the dielectric substrate having dielectric constant 2.15 while simulation. Later the proposed antenna was fabricated performance is validated experimentally. The measured S11 was found to be less than −15 dB at operating frequency with a neat measured gain of 13.1 dBi, higher compared with 7.1 dBi gain of single antenna, with minimized sidelobe levels of less than −10 dB. The crosspolarization for the radiation pattern was found better than 20 dB which was an excellent result. The measured polarization angle was found to be −44.24° and +46.20° for negative and positive bias respectively at operating frequency with a neat efficiency of more than 80% in its operating bandwidth. The proposed array antenna is a suitable candidate for the application in polarimetric Radar, X-band radar, and polarization diversity applications for being lightweight in structure which was made possible using this novel technology. The antenna simulation is done by the advanced design system and the optimized along with experimental data are discussed in this article.

X-Band Monolithic Microwave Integrated Detector Based on MEMS Thermoelectric Power Sensor

This letter reports an X-band monolithic microwave integrated detector based on MEMS thermoelectric power sensor. It is fabricated by the GaAs monolithic microwave integrated circuit technology. The novelty of the proposed device is that it can achieve the integrated detection of the microwave signal (power, frequency, and phase) in a broad frequency bandwidth. The proposed integrated detector consists of three parts: power detection/AM demodulation; frequency detection; and phase detection, which are finally integrated on a single chip by several dual-band power dividers. In this letter, the designed dual-band power dividers have excellent impedance matching properties on X-band (8–12 GHz). The parameters to be tested are all converted into output thermal voltages by the terminated thermoelectric power sensors. Measurement results show good return loss and isolation on X-band. Power detection, AM demodulation, frequency detection, and phase detection have all been tested effectively.

A multi-layer approach of orthogonally fed circularly polarized microstrip array antenna for enhanced gain

AbstractA new circularly polarized microstrip array antenna using the orthogonal feed technique is proposed in this paper. The antenna has a multi-layer structure and a new 3-way power divider employing the both-sided microwave integrated circuit technology is designed to configure the feed network of the array. Circular polarization (CP) is realized by creating a quadrature phase difference between orthogonal feed circuits of the patches. The multi-layer structure gives flexibility to adjust the patch spacing that helps to reduce the sidelobe level of the antenna. It is found that the multi-layer structure exhibits a gain of about 2 dB higher than that of a single layer structure by means of sidelobe reduction. The proposed structure also exhibits good CP performances that are verified by a good agreement of measured and simulated results. Simple and compact structure makes the antenna suitable for various wireless applications.

Accurate and Robust CW-LFM Radar Sensor: Transceiver Front-End Design and Implementation

This paper outlines the design and implementation of a continuous-wave linear-frequency-modulated sensor for short-range radar applications. Low-cost technologies have been selected to implement the sensor. It was integrated on a 0.127-mm-thin ceramic substrate using the miniature hybrid microwave integrated circuit technology. Two 16-dBi gain $8\times 2$ patch antenna arrays are implemented in the transmitter and receiver modules. The receiver is a six-port homodyne quadrature down-converter. The integrated power detectors are fabricated using HSCH-9161 Schottky diodes. The complete sensor, in the metallic fixture, measures $35\times 45$ mm. The performance of the sensor to detect a target range and velocity is validated using system simulations and measurement systems on a test bench. System simulations use computer models based on S-parameter measurement results. Measurements show that an accuracy of $\pmb {\pm } 16.23~ {\mu }\text{m}$ can be achieved with the sensor over a range of 15cm. To precisely measure the six-port radar accuracy, due to our RF laboratory capabilities, this result is obtained by changing the electrical length, instead of varying the physical distance.

Analysis of Lateral Thermal Coupling for GaN MMIC Technologies

This paper presents a study of the lateral heat propagation in an aluminum gallium nitride/gallium nitride (AlGaN/GaN) heterostructure grown on a silicon carbide substrate. The study is enabled by the design of a temperature sensor that utilizes the temperature-dependent $I$ – $V$ characteristic of a semiconductor resistor, making it suitable for integration in GaN monolithic microwave integrated circuit technologies. Using the sensor, we are able to characterize the thermal transient response and extract lateral thermal time constants from the measurements. Time constants in the range from 25 $\mu \text{s}$ to 1.2 ms are identified. Furthermore, the heat propagation properties are characterized for heat source-to-sensor distances of 86– $484~\mu \text{m}$ , resulting in delay times from 3.5 to $111~\mu \text{s}$ . It is shown that both the time constants and propagation delay increase with temperature. An empirical model of the sensor current versus temperature and voltage is proposed and used to predict the junction temperature of the sensor. The study provides knowledge for heat management design and proposes an integrated temperature measurement solution for future highly integrated GaN applications.

Optical-antenna: Great attraction for communication community

The Dielectric Resonator Antenna (DRA) has mainly focus on good quality communication with low profile Antenna. Cylindrical Dielectric Resonator optical Antenna (CDROA) is compact in structure, light in weight conformable to surface planar some natural carbon atom form hollow cylinder without side diameter of only one nano meter. The Resonator Antenna is well suited for microwave devices integration and feeding Technique and, especially with the microwave integrated circuit technology. This unique type antenna has unique applications for direct broadcast Technique as well as satellite system on satellite communication at global positioning system (GPS) and high frequency navigation system and good accuracy and a large variety of radar systems demand for good quality Antenna for the best performance of antenna system.

A Four-Port Microwave Phase Detector at $X$ -Band Based on MEMS Power Sensors

A four-port microwave phase detector based on MEMS power sensors at $X$ -band (8–12 GHz) is proposed in this paper. It consists of two power dividers, two power combiners, two phase shifters, and two MEMS power sensors. Four power dividers/combiners and two phase shifters compose a four-port junction to expand the phase detection range. A thermoelectric power sensor and a capacitive power sensor compose the MEMS power sensor for low and high power measurement. Two types of power sensors can improve the measurement range and enhance the overload capacity. This microwave phase detector is fabricated by GaAs monolithic microwave integrated circuit technology. Experiments show that its return loss is better than −10 dB, and the isolation is better than −13.2 dB over $X$ -band. Measured results of the phase shift fit well with the calculated results in an entire cycle of −180°~+180°. The phase detection sensitivities are $16.62~\mu \text{V}$ /° and 23.94 aF/°, and the response times are 0.408 ms and less than 20 ms for the two types of sensors, respectively. The dynamic range of phase detector can be expanded up to 4 W, which is almost quintuple our previous works.

70W GaN-HEMT &lt;italic&gt;Ku&lt;/italic&gt;-Band Power Amplifier in MIC Technology

In this paper the design, implementation, and experimental results of a Ku -band 70W GaN-HEMT power amplifier (PA) for satellite communication are presented. A two-stage design approach with two 250nm bare-die devices has been chosen to achieve a considerably high saturated gain of 15 dB over the whole extended Ku -band (13.75–14.5 GHz). The circuit was realized in a hybrid microwave integrated circuit technology on an alumina substrate. The PA shows a measured performance of more than 50W output power for a continuous-wave signal with a power-added efficiency (PAE) higher than 23%. Modulated measurements demonstrate an average output power of more than 30W (70W peak) and 21% PAE, while holding the Eutelsat linearity requirements.

Thermal Influence on Multibias Small- and Large-Signal Parameters of GaAs pHEMT Fabricated in Multilayer 3-D MMIC

Temperature influence on the device behavior has been carried out on AlGaAs/InGaAs/GaAs-based pseudomorphic high-electron mobility transistor fabricated in multilayer 3-D monolithic microwave integrated circuits technology over multibias operation condition. The multibias thermal effect on the dc and RF, small-signal (up to 40 GHz) and large-signal parameters, including the third-order intercept points as well as the linear and third-order intermodulation output power performance at 4 GHz were analyzed and reported for the first time. In addition, the noise figure parameters of device have been reported and estimated at 10 GHz. The temperature coefficients of the device dc and RF parameters are carefully established at the peak transconductance condition. The results are important for the design optimizations of advanced monolithic multilayer integrations.

Performance comparison of 60 GHz printed patch antennas with different geometrical shapes using miniature hybrid microwave integrated circuits technology

This study presents a comparative study of several printed antennas having different shapes of the patch (rectangular, square, triangular, trapezoidal, circular, elliptical, and annular ring), suitable for 60 GHz wireless applications. All these microstrip patch antennas have been designed and fabricated on a very thin ceramic substrate to enable a high level of integration with other integrated circuits including passive circuits (such as power dividers, hybrid couplers, and passive filters), and active circuits (such as low noise amplifier (LNA), radio frequency (RF) mixers, and frequency multipliers). In that event, all of those circuits will be incorporated on a single and very small planar substrate to reduce overall size, and to avoid lossy millimetre-wave connectors. To analyse and compare the performances, advanced design system of Keysight Technologies was used for circuits design and simulation. This comparison is based on the obtained results particularly in radiation characteristics and inputs return loss, by determining the main associated parameters such as the bandwidth, voltage standing wave ratio, gain, directivity, efficiency, and cross-polarisation level. This comparative study would be very helpful for RF design engineers to select suitable antenna geometry while designing microstrip patch antenna arrays at 60 GHz millimetre-wave band.

A Sandwich-Type Thermoelectric Microwave Power Sensor for GaAs MMIC-Compatible Applications

This letter presents a sandwich-type non-microelectromechanical system (MEMS) thermoelectric microwave power sensor, which is based on the conversion principle of microwave power-heat-electricity. To reduce heat loss, a thermopile is designed to lie beneath two matching load resistors, electrically isolated by a dielectric layer. The design enables this sensor to eliminate the need for MEMS technology. To verify the design validity, the sandwich-type non-MEMS microwave sensor is fabricated together with a MEMS sensor. This improved sandwich-type sensor offers compatibility with the GaAs monolithic microwave integrated circuit technology. Experiments show that these sensors produce reflection losses of less than −20 dB up to 20 GHz. At 1, 10, and 20 GHz, the measured average sensitivities are ~101, 71.7, and $54.1 \mu \text{V}^{-1}\cdot \text{mW}$ for the traditional MEMS sensor and approximately 130.2, 92.3, and $66.8 \mu \text{V}^{-1}\cdot \text{mW}$ for the improved non-MEMS sensor, respectively, with good linearity of the output responses.

Six-Port Based Interferometry for Precise Radar and Sensing Applications.

Microwave technology plays a more important role in modern industrial sensing applications. Pushed by the significant progress in monolithic microwave integrated circuit technology over the past decades, complex sensing systems operating in the microwave and even millimeter-wave range are available for reasonable costs combined with exquisite performance. In the context of industrial sensing, this stimulates new approaches for metrology based on microwave technology. An old measurement principle nearly forgotten over the years has recently gained more and more attention in both academia and industry: the six-port interferometer. This paper reviews the basic concept, investigates promising applications in remote, as well as contact-based sensing and compares the system with state-of-the-art metrology. The significant advantages will be discussed just as the limitations of the six-port architecture. Particular attention will be paid to impairment effects and non-ideal behavior, as well as compensation and linearization concepts. It will be shown that in application fields, like remote distance sensing, precise alignment measurements, as well as interferometrically-evaluated mechanical strain analysis, the six-port architecture delivers extraordinary measurement results combined with high measurement data update rates for reasonable system costs. This makes the six-port architecture a promising candidate for industrial metrology.

An &lt;inline-formula&gt; &lt;tex-math notation="LaTeX"&gt;$X$ &lt;/tex-math&gt; &lt;/inline-formula&gt;-Band Dual Channel Microwave Phase Detector Based on GaAs MMIC Technology

An X-band (8-12 GHz) dual channel microwave phase detector is investigated. This phase detector is based on measuring the output power by microelectromechanical systems sensors. The device is fabricated by GaAs monolithic microwave integrated circuit technology. Experiments show that this dual channel detector can detect a phase difference in entire cycle from -180° to +180°. Its frequency response reaches maximum at 9.6 GHz. By cascading a capacitive power sensor, the dynamic range of this system has been expanded up to 2 W and the phase sensitivity can reach to 58.91 μV/deg.

GaN HEMT-Based &gt;1-GHz Speed Low-Side Gate Driver and Switch Monolithic Process for 865-MHz Power Conversion Applications

Due to its remarkably high Johnson figure of merit, gallium nitride (GaN) has become the material of choice for applications requiring high output power at high frequencies. In this paper, we have reviewed high-speed switching work to date and we demonstrate a 28 V, 865-MHz switching speed step-down converter that can be applied to envelope tracking (ET). We report a GaN monolithic microwave integrated circuit technology utilized to fabricate a gate driver IC at a switching speed >1 GHz with 100 V breakdown GaN power switch. The on-chip integration of the power switch and gate driver allows in-circuit characterization of the power switch switching speed. Using the integrated gate driver and switch, we report a slew rate of the power switch of 152 V/ns at 50 V, which enables a down converter IC capable of ET with over 50-MHz tracking bandwidth. This paper shows the first demonstration of a GaN low-side gate driver capable of >1-GHz switching, monolithic integration with a 0.15- $\mu \text{m}$ T-gate suitable for up to Ka-band operation, and a >100 V breakdown voltage power switch on the same chip.

A 675 GHz Differential Oscillator Based on a Resonant Tunneling Diode

This letter presents a resonant tunneling diode (RTD)-based differential oscillator topology which can enhance output power coupling for THz applications. In order to combine the differential output signals of the RTD differential oscillator, an on-chip dipole antenna is integrated into the InP-based RTD monolithic microwave integrated circuit technology. The fabricated RTD differential oscillator shows a radiated output power of 47 μW with a total dc power consumption of 14.1 mW at an oscillation frequency of 675 GHz. A high dc-to-RF efficiency of 0.33% has been obtained. This is the first implementation as an RTD differential oscillator topology for THz sources, integrated with the on-chip dipole antenna.