GaAs Monolithic Microwave Integrated Circuits using Broadband Tunable Active Inductors

The design and the performance of new broadband tunable active inductors are presented and discussed. These circuits allow reactance variations to be obtained one order of magnitude greater than those achievable with on-chip varactor diodes. As a proof of the practical usefulness of the developed tunable active inductors, two MMIC based active circuits are described : an analog 180° broadband phase shifter, in hybrid form, and a 1.4 GHz bandwidth monolithic amplifier having a centre frequency tunable between 2 and 6 GHz.