A Broadband 835–900-GHz Fundamental Balanced Mixer Based on Monolithic GaAs Membrane Schottky Diodes

Author

Thomas, Bertrand ; Maestrini, Alain ; Gill, John ; Lee, Choonsup ; Lin, Robert ; Mehdi, Imran ; De Maagt, Peter

Author_Institution

Jet Propulsion Lab. (JPL), California Inst. of Technol., Pasadena, CA, USA

Volume

58

Issue

7

fYear

2010

fDate

7/1/2010 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

1917

Lastpage

1924

Abstract

The development of a 835-900-GHz biasable fundamental balanced mixer using planar GaAs Schottky diodes is presented. The monolithic microwave integrated circuit integrates two planar Schottky anodes in a balanced configuration, stripline filtering elements, and on-chip capacitor on a thin GaAs membrane. At 850 GHz, double side-band (DSB) mixer noise temperature of 2660 K and conversion loss of 9.25 dB are measured, respectively, at room temperature. When the mixer is cooled to 120 K, the DSB mixer noise temperature and conversion loss improve to 1910 K and 8.84 dB, respectively.

Keywords

III-V semiconductors; MMIC mixers; Schottky diode mixers; capacitors; gallium arsenide; submillimetre wave diodes; submillimetre wave mixers; DSB mixer noise temperature; GaAs; broadband fundamental balanced mixer; double-side band mixer; frequency 835 GHz to 900 GHz; loss 8.84 dB; loss 9.25 dB; monolithic gallium arsenide membrane Schottky diodes; monolithic microwave integrated circuit; on-chip capacitor; planar Schottky anodes; stripline filtering elements; temperature 120 K; temperature 1910 K; temperature 2660 K; Cryogenic test bench; fundamental balanced mixer (FBM); monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC); passive cooling; planar Schottky diode; submillimeter wavelengths; vacuum chamber;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Microwave Theory and Techniques, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9480

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/TMTT.2010.2050181

Filename

5491262