Millimeter-Wave Monolithic Integrated Circuits

This paper summarizes the progress, trends, and technical issues associated with monolithic millimeter-wave integrated circuit technology. Presented first is background information which sets forth a description of the opportunities which spur this activity, and a summary of the important technical challenges. The technical challenges encompass aspects of: semicondutor material growth and processing; solid-state source performance; device and circuit characterization, de-embedding and modeling; and automated testing. Next, a discussion is provided of the semiconductor device types and circuit media which serve as building blocks for this technology. Device types treated here include sources, mixer/detectors, and modulators. The material offered relating to circuit media contrasts the attributes of monolithic approaches with those of waveguide and hybrid techniques. The paper concludes with a description of salient monolithic programs which benchmark the status of current effort in the U.S. This description includes a summary of important technical issues and research thrusts.