Research on Monolithic Microwave Integrated-Circuits for Microwave and Millimeter-wave Communications

• Main Authors: Chih-Wen Huang, 黃智文
• Other Authors: Shoou-Jinn Chang
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2006
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/38282940962206335905

博士 === 國立成功大學 === 微電子工程研究所碩博士班 === 95 === As device technology improves, interest in the millimeter-wave band grows. Wireless communication systems migrate to higher frequencies. In particular, the advantages of monolithic integration become increasingly important. This dissertation presents many new developments in Monolithic Millimeter-Wave Integrated Circuits (MMICs), both the active and passive circuit. It begins with an overview of the various applications of millimeter waves, including a discussion of system why many of them demand a MMIC implementation. In the subsequent chapters, new MMIC chips are described in detail. GaAs PHEMT device is one of the most important devices of Ⅲ- Ⅴsemiconductors in military and commercial communication applications. Many key microwave and millimeter-wave MMICs with PHEMT device are investigated in this dissertation, which include the high power amplifier, temperature compensation power amplifier, double balanced frequency multiplier, double balanced diode mixer and band pass coupled filter. At first, a high power MMIC amplifier, based on Cripps theory, was analyzed and designed. The determined small-signal equivalent circuit by using the small-signal modeling method described in this dissertation fits the S-parameters very well up to 40 GHz. A Ka-band MMIC power amplifier is designed, fabricated and measured. The two-stage HPAs were prepared on 2mil-GaAs substrates with a small chip size of 3.46 mm x 2.9 mm. It was found that we could achieve at least 10 dB small signal gain, 29.5 dBm P-1dB, 31 dBm Psat and better than 12 dB output return loss. This dissertation describes the method of temperature compensation. Understanding the extent of contribution of various scattering mechanisms may help us achieve better temperature compensation suitable for high speed-device applications. A fully match four-stage Ku-band 1 watt PHEMT MMIC power amplifiers with temperature compensation GaAs feedback resistor was fabricated. It was found that we can significantly reduce the gain variation in the temperature range between -40 oC and 80oC from 7 dB to less than 3 dB by using the temperature compensation GaAs feedback resistor. MMIC frequency multiplier and mixer are fabricated on 2-mil-thick GaAs substrates using 0.25-µm InGaAs/AlGaAs/GaAs PHEMT technology provided by commercially available foundry service. The coupled-line Marchand Baluns can be used to realize broadband, high-performance mixers for planar MMICs. The development of a Ka band monolithic diode double balanced star mixer has been demonstrated with a chip size of only 1.43×1.28 mm2. The typical up-conversion loss is 7 dB with an LO-to-RF isolation better than 28 dB. The development of a ka band monolithic diode double balanced multiplier has been demonstrated. At 17.5-GHz input frequency, the conversion losses are only 12.6 dB for an input power of 18 dBm. The isolation is better than –52 dB. A new parallel-coupled line Ka-band filter was designed and fabricated on a GaAs substrate using micromachining techniques. The Wen filter showed very low port-to-port insertion loss (3.5 dB for the 33 GHz center frequency) while still providing high isolation and agrees very well with the simulated results. Further, this topology allows for straightforward integration of other planar elements, such as LNA’s and PA’s on the same substrate, thereby eliminating the need for transitions. The most important of all, the Wen filter shrinks the size of total system due to excellent port-to-port distance (1.5mm only). In all these research topics, the theoretical analysis, circuit simulation, EM simulation, and experimental measurement are conducted to understand and verify the mechanism of the circuits.