Optical ports: next generation of MMIC control devices?

The results of our research on the electro-optical control of MMICs are shown in this paper. Two different devices have been investigated: a GaAs chip monolithic amplifier at S band, and an AlGaAs chip MMIC voltage controlled oscillator at Ku. The possibilities of optical control of the amplifier are evidenced as follows: if the amplifier operates with the same biasing, the gain can be optically controlled from a condition of almost isolation,, up to an active condition, which gives a range of optical control of about 15 dB and provides an improvement of the input and output matching in a range of 12dB and 6dB, respectively. The possibilities of optical control of the VCO by illumination of the PHEMT transistor are demonstrated through measurements of the oscillation output power and frequency. An optical control range of 8dB of oscillation output power and up to 400MHz of oscillation frequency has been obtained. This optical control suggests an interesting control of gain and matching for other microwave FET based active devices.