Millimeter wave integrated circuit techniques and technology

This paper presents techniques and technology for the design and development of low cost microwave and millimeter wave integrated circuits. Starting from the conventional microstrip, other key technologies including suspended stripline, dielectric integrated guides and micromachining are described. Design methodology leading to the development of several high performance components/subsystems at 35 GHz and 140 GHz is presented. The components reported are 26.5-40 GHz balanced mixer in microstrip, 18-40 GHz double balanced mixer using a novel balun structure, 140 GHz band pass filter and balanced mixer utilizing a novel suspended stripline structure, band stop filter and an oscillator utilizing a novel transition from suspended stripline to dielectric guide. The design and development of different types of micro machined patch antennas are then described. The antenna geometries considered are: circular patch antenna, square patches antenna, triangular patch antenna, and coplanar patch antennas. These antenna geometries are optimized using full wave electromagnetic simulation software HFSS and then fabricated on high resistivity Si wafers. Next, methodology for the design and development of MEMS switch on GaAs at Ka-band is presented. Finally schemes for developing reconfigurable circuits at millimeter wave frequencies using MEMS switches are presented.