Schottky Diode Based Envelope Detectors in Planar Topology for UWB and W-Band

• Main Author: Blanco Granja, Angel
• Format: Others
• Language: en
• Published: 2021
• Online Access: https://tuprints.ulb.tu-darmstadt.de/19221/1/2021-06-15_Angel_Blanco_Granja%20.pdf; Blanco Granja, Angel <http://tuprints.ulb.tu-darmstadt.de/view/person/Blanco_Granja=3AAngel=3A=3A.html> (2021):Schottky Diode Based Envelope Detectors in Planar Topology for UWB and W-Band. (Publisher's Version)Darmstadt, Technische Universität, DOI: 10.26083/tuprints-00019221 <https://doi.org/10.26083/tuprints-00019221>, [Ph.D. Thesis]

The massive growth in the demand of wireless communication data rates and services require new technologies to grant broader bandwidths to end users. This work is encompassed in the European project CELTA (Convergence of Electronics and Photonics Technologies for Enabling Terahertz Applications) within the beamformer demonstrator, which aims to develop a transmitter and a receiver capable of providing high bitrate wireless indoor communications operating at W-band (75GHz to 110 GHz). This dissertation presents the design of five Schottky diode based balanced Envelope Detectors (ED). The first two detectors, UWB1 and UWB2, operate in the Ultra-WideBand (UWB) frequency range from 3.1 GHz to 10.6 GHz and are used to compare different architectures at low complexity and cost. The other three, ED1, ED2 and ED3, work in the W-band for the final goal of the beamformer demonstrator. UWB1 is composed of a balun that splits the input signal into two 180° out of phase signals and a single balanced detector circuit. It demodulates in real time and error free up to 4 Gbit/s Amplitude Shift Keying (ASK) signals with carrier frequencies between 4 GHz and 8 GHz. It reaches a World record in the State of The Art in terms of bitrate to carrier frequency ratio, ∆b, of 100 % for the 4 GHz carrier frequency. UWB2 introduces a novel architecture, combining the functionality of a balun and, at the same time rectification of the input signal, providing a more compact configuration and featuring a higher sensitivity than UWB1. As a consequence of its lower phase balance bandwidth, it demodulates in real time and error free up to 2.5 Gbit/s ASK signals modulated onto a 8 GHz carrier, providing a ∆b of 31.25 %. In the three W-band EDs, UWB2’s architecture is chosen, prioritising sensitivity, size, weight, complexity and cost over demodulated bitrate and phase balance bandwidth. The W-band EDs are built in microstrip line technology, and provide a WR-10 waveguide interface through a microstrip line to WR-10 waveguide transition. ED1’s prototype features an input RF bandwidth of 20 GHz within the W-band, 6 GHz of videobandwidth and demodulates in real time and error free up to 12 Gbit/s ASK signals. When tested in a wireless system it demodulates up to 7 Gbit/s ASK signals with a 82 GHz carrier transmitted through 1 m. These results not only fulfil the goals set for this dissertation and the CELTA’s beamformer requirements, but in addition, it improves the state of the art, since the prior envelope detector using the same diodes and substrate demodulated 3 Gbit/s through 0.5 m. Moreover, two additional W-band EDs designs are presented. According to simulation results, both detectors widen the input bandwidth, ED2 up to 35 GHz, i.e. the full W-band, and ED3 up to 29GHz. Although both envelope detectors have been manufactured, their experimental characterization remains as future work, since due to time constraints it could not be performed.