An integrated 520–600 GHz sub-harmonic mixer and tripler combination based on GaAs MMIC membrane planar Schottky diodes

Author

Thomas, B. ; Gill, J. ; Maestrini, A. ; Lee, C. ; Lin, R. ; Sin, S. ; Peralta, A. ; Mehdi, I.

Author_Institution

NASA-Jet Propulsion Lab., California Inst. of Technol., Pasadena, CA, USA

fYear

2010

fDate

5-10 Sept. 2010

Firstpage

1

Lastpage

2

Abstract

We present here the design, development and test of an integrated sub-millimeter front-end featuring a 520-600 GHz sub-harmonic mixer and a 260-300 GHz frequency tripler in a single cavity. Both devices used GaAs MMIC membrane planar Schottky diode technology. The sub-harmonic mixer/tripler circuit has been tested using conventional machined as well as silicon micro-machined blocks. Measurement results on the metal block give best DSB mixer noise temperature of 2360 K and conversion losses of 7.7 dB at 520 GHz. Preliminary results on the silicon micro-machined blocks give a DSB mixer noise temperature of 4860 K and conversion losses of 12.16 dB at 540 GHz. The LO input power required to pump the integrated tripler/sub-harmonic mixer for both packages is between 30 and 50 mW.

Keywords

III-V semiconductors; MMIC mixers; Schottky diode mixers; frequency multipliers; gallium arsenide; micromachining; millimetre wave mixers; silicon; submillimetre wave mixers; DSB mixer noise temperature; GaAs; MMIC membrane planar Schottky diodes; Si; frequency 260 GHz to 300 GHz; frequency 520 GHz to 600 GHz; frequency tripler; integrated sub-harmonic mixer; integrated sub-millimeter front-end; loss 12.16 dB; loss 7.7 dB; silicon micromachined blocks; single cavity; temperature 2360 K; temperature 4860 K; tripler circuit; Loss measurement; MMICs; Metals; Mixers; Noise; Silicon; Temperature measurement;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Infrared Millimeter and Terahertz Waves (IRMMW-THz), 2010 35th International Conference on

Conference_Location

Rome

Print_ISBN

978-1-4244-6655-9

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/ICIMW.2010.5612704

Filename

5612704