A Monolithic Broadband Microwave Down Convertor

This paper presents the realization of a GaAs monolithic broadband down convertor. The originality of this device consists in the use of only two field effect transistors (without d.c. bias for the first stage). As a consequence of the simplicity of our device, good reliability and high performances in microwave domain can be obtained. A typical result is a conversion gain of about 0dB in the frequency range up to 18 GHz. Finally, various microwave applications can be proposed for this original device. With this new type of circuit, many applications are possible such as frequency counter, broadband down convertor, network analysers, frequency stabilization and conversion. Two examples concerning these two early type of application are described.