A free running dielectric resonator oscillator at 9.6 GHz

Oscillator is an integral and vital part of any RF/Microwave communication system. With an ever increasing demand of sophisticated applications in communication domain, the need for specialized oscillator circuits capable of providing very stable and low phase noise signal is widely established. Among the transistor based high frequency oscillators, dielectric resonator oscillators are in limelight due to their higher stability and superior phase noise performance. This paper describes the design and development of a mechanically tunable dielectric resonator oscillator operable with a single dc supply. An ultra-low noise pHEMT is used in the oscillator core and a dielectric resonator puck from a commercial satellite television LNBF is used as high-Q tuning element.