This paper presents wideband split-ring antenna arrays based on substrate integrated waveguide (SIW) for Ka-band (26.5–40 GHz) applications. The antenna array is fed by a 2.92 mm coaxial connector (K-connector) and the power is equally distributed to each split-ring resonator. The designed coplanar waveguide (CPW), SIW, CPW-to-SIW transition, coaxial-to-CPW transition, and two-stage SIW power divider are described in detail. By using a thin Rogers 6002 substrate with silver epoxy-filled vias, a transition prototype is designed, fabricated, and tested in a back-to-back configuration. A wideband split-ring resonator is developed as a single element and four possible arrangements of antenna arrays are introduced. By combining the designed components and routing paths, two full layouts of the antenna arrays with four split-ring resonators are addressed. As a demonstrator, a 2×2 antenna array prototype in a compact format is designed, fabricated, and tested. The fabricated antenna array achieves a measured directivity of 15.0 dBi with a fractional bandwidth of 23.0% centered at 30.5 GHz.

In this paper, we report the analysis, design, and implementation of stacked transistors for power amplifiers realized on InP Double Heterojunction Bipolar Transistors (DHBTs) technology. A theoretical analysis based on the interstage matching between all the single transistors has been developed starting from the small-signal equivalent circuit. The analysis has been extended by including large-signal effects and layout-related limitations. An evaluation of the maximum number of transistors for positive incremental power and gain is also carried out. To validate the analysis, E-band three- and four-stacked InP DHBT matched power cells have been realized for the first time as monolithic microwave integrated circuits (MMICs). For the three-stacked transistor, a small-signal gain of 8.3 dB, a saturated output power of 15 dBm, and a peak power added efficiency (PAE) of 5.2% have been obtained at 81 GHz. At the same frequency, the four-stacked transistor achieves a small-signal gain of 11.5 dB, a saturated output power of 14.9 dBm and a peak PAE of 3.8%. A four-way combined three-stacked MMIC power amplifier has been implemented as well. It exhibits a linear gain of 8.1 dB, a saturated output power higher than 18 dBm, and a PAE higher than 3% at 84 GHz.

This paper presents an ultra-wideband coplanar waveguide (CPW)-to-asymmetric coplanar stripline (ACPS) transition based on aluminum nitride (AlN) substrate. The concepts of designing CPW, ACPS, and CPW-to-ACPS transition are explained. In order to suppress parasitic modes, vias going through AlN substrate are added along the ground traces. The signal trace is tapered out and chamfered to reduce the reflection caused by the termination of ground trace. The CPW-to-ACPS transition is designed, fabricated, and measured in a back-to-back configuration. The fabricated CPW-to-ACPS transition can provide a bandwidth of 165 GHz with an associated insertion loss of 3 dB.

In this paper, an electromagnetic (EM) simulation assisted parameter extraction procedure is demonstrated for accurate modeling of down-scaled transferred-substrate InP HBTs. The external parasitic network associated with via transitions and device electrodes is carefully extracted from calibrated three-dimensional EM simulations up to 325 GHz. Following an on-wafer multi-line Through-Reflect-Line calibration procedure, the external parasitic network is de-embedded from the transistor measurements and the active device parameters are extracted in a reliable way. The small-signal model structure augmented with the distributed parasitic network provides accurate small-signal prediction up to 220 GHz.

The benefit of cryogenic cooling on the performance of millimeter-wave GaAs Schottky-barrier varactor-based frequency multipliers has been studied. For this purpose, a dedicated compact model of a GaAs Schottky-barrier varactor using a triple-anode diode stack has been developed for use with a commercial RF and microwave CAD tool. The model implements critical physical phenomena such as thermionic-field emission current transport at cryogenic temperatures, temperature dependent mobility, reverse breakdown, self-heating, and high-field velocity saturation effects. A parallel conduction model is employed in order to include the effect of barrier inhomogeneities which is known to cause deviation from the expected I--V characteristics at cryogenic temperatures. The developed model is shown to accurately fit the I--V --T dataset from 25 to 295 K measured on the varactor diode stack. Harmonic balance simulations using the model are used to predict the efficiency of a millimeter-wave balanced doubler from room to cryogenic temperatures. The estimation is verified experimentally using a 188 GHz balanced doubler cooled down to 77 K. The model has been further verified down to 14 K using a 78 GHz balanced doubler.

In this paper, we propose a double balanced mixer with a tunable Marchand balun. The circuit is designed in a SiGe BiCMOS process using Schottky diodes. The tunability of the Marchand balun is used to enhance critical parameters for double balanced mixers. The local oscillator-IF isolation can be changed from –51 to –60.5 dB by tuning. Similarly, the IIP2 can be improved from 41.3 to 48.7 dBm at 11 GHz, while the input referred 1-dB compression point is kept constant at 8 dBm. The tuning have no influence on conversion loss, which remains at 8.8 dB at a LO power level of 11 dBm at the center frequency of 11 GHz. The mixer has a 3 dB bandwidth from 8 to 13 GHz, covering the entire X-band. The full mixer has a size of 2050 μm × 1000 μm.

The development in high-end microwave transceiver systems toward the software defined radio has brought about the need for tunable frontend filters. Although the problem is being tackled by the microwave community, there still appears to be an unmet demand for practical tunable filter technologies. With this motivation, this work presents a tuning method that delivers a resonator Q0 of 2000–3621 within a minimum tuning ratio of 1:1.42. A continuously tunable notch filter based on this tuning method is presented. The design is manufactured, measured, and verified. It is shown that the tuning technology compares favorably to other selected technologies.

In this paper, a passive double-balanced mixer in SiGe HBT technology is presented. Owing to lack of suitable passive mixing elements in the technology, the mixing elements are formed by diode-connected HBTs. The mixer uses lumped element Marchand baluns on both the local oscillator (LO) and the radio frequency (RF) port. A break out of the Marchand balun is measured. This demonstrates good phase and magnitude match of 0.7° and 0.11 dB, respectively. The Marchand baluns are broadband with a measured 3 dB bandwidth of 6.4 GHz, while still having a magnitude imbalance better than 0.4 dB and a phase imbalance better than 5°. Unfortunately with a rather high loss of 2.5 dB, mainly due to the low Q-factor of the inductors used. The mixer is optimized for use in doppler radars and is highly linear with a 1 dB compression point above 12 dBm IIP2 of 66 dBm. The conversion gain at the center frequency of 8.5 GHz is −9.8 dB at an LO drive level of 15 dBm. The whole mixer is very broadband with 3 dB bandwidth from 7 to 12 GHz covering the entire X-band. The LO–IF, RF–IF, and RF–LO isolation is better than 46, 36, and 36 dB, respectively, in the entire band of operation.

In this paper, the small- and large-signal modeling of InP heterojunction bipolar transistors (HBTs) in transferred substrate (TS) technology is investigated. The small-signal equivalent circuit parameters for TS-HBTs in two-terminal and three-terminal configurations are determined by employing a direct parameter extraction methodology dedicated to III–V based HBTs. It is shown that the modeling of measured S-parameters can be improved in the millimeter-wave frequency range by augmenting the small-signal model with a description of AC current crowding. The extracted elements of the small-signal model structure are employed as a starting point for the extraction of a large-signal model. The developed large-signal model for the TS-HBTs accurately predicts the DC over temperature and small-signal performance over bias as well as the large-signal performance at millimeter-wave frequencies.