Highly compacted X-band T/R Module using LTCC multilayer ceramic

Transmit/Receive (T/R) Modules are the key components for active phased array radar applications. A complete T/R Module for airborne or spaceborne active phased array radar operating in X-band was developed and tested. Besides highly sophisticated Gallium Arsenide monolithic microwave integrated circuits (GaAs MMICs), the key components for T/R Modules, Low Temperature Co-fired Ceramic (LTCC) substrate technology has been applied to reduce module size and weight. The paper has discussed in detail the module architecture, the assemble technology, and the optimum design. Finally, an extract of measurement results coming from the T/R Module first prototypes has been given. The design resulted in a very small and low-weight module, that enables a phase/gain quantisation of 5.625deg and 0.5 dB respectively. The module´s output power is more than 8 Watts and the noise figure is as low as 4 dB in X band.