Wave transmission lines and networks – Long line elements and components – Switch
Reexamination Certificate
2001-12-14
2004-10-05
Pascal, Robert (Department: 2817)
Wave transmission lines and networks
Long line elements and components
Switch
C333S104000, C333S246000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06801108
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a signal switch network, in particular, a millimeter-wave passive FET (Field Effect Transistor) switch using impedance transformation networks.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
High frequency switch is one of the important devices in MMW (millimeter-wave) radio communication system. The performance of a circuit is limited by the devices used in the circuit. As to the high frequency switch used in millimeter-wave band, the isolation, of the switch in on/off state is limited by the FET used in the switch. Since in high frequency, an FET in off state will present low impedance instead of high impedance due to the capacitance between the drain and source of the FET. In addition, high frequency signals between neighbor transmission lines will often couple with one another so as to degrade the performance of the circuit.
Monolithic PIN diode microwave switch has demonstrated excellent performance even up to millimeter-wave frequency. However, since PIN diode cannot be manufactured in MMIC (Monolithic Microwave Integrated Circuit) process of HEMT (High Electron Mobility Transistor, one type of FET), FET switch is still very popular today, because FET can be integrated with other building blocks in a transmit/receive (T/R) module, and presents better linearity than PIN diode. For frequency of 20 GHz or lower, series and/or shunt configurations of an FET with a transmission line can readily serve as a very good switch with excellent isolation and insertion loss. However, for frequency higher than 20 GHz, the parasitic capacitance between the drain and the source of FET will degrade the, isolation performance significantly. Most MMW monolithic FET switches employ indutors to resonate with the parasitic capacitance between the drain and the source of FET, but the isolation of the swich is still lower than 30 dB (please see references [1]~[4]).
In order to enhance the isolation of the switch, a transmission line with quarter wavelength is used to increase the distance between the switch and the signal line, so as to achieve up to 44 dB isolation (please see reference [5]), but a huge chip area is required, and therefore increase the cost.
Phase cancellation technique, of Lange coupler can also be used to achieve a better isolation performance (please see reference [6]), but several 3 dB and 90° Lange couplers are required, and thus increase the layout area.
Recently, compact DC~60 GHz HJFET MMIC switch was reported with reasonable isolation performance (please see references [7]~[8]), but a special process/layout for the ohmic electrode sharing technology is required in HEMT devices.
REFERENCES
[1] M. J. Schindler and A. Morris, “DC-40 Gz and 20-40 GHz MMIC SPDT switches,”
IEEE Trans. on Microwave Theory Tech
., vol. MTT-35, no. 12, pp. 1486-1493, December 1987.
[2] P. Bermkopf, M. Schindler, and A. Bertrand, “A high power K/Ka-band monolithic T/R switch,” in 1991
IEEE Microwave
&
Millimeter
-
wave Monolithic Circuits Symposium Digest
, pp. 15-8, June 1991.
[3] G. L. Lan, D. L. Dunn, J. C. Chen, C. K. Pao and D.C. Wang. “A high performance V-Band monolithic FET transmit-receive switch,” in 1988
IEEE Microwave
&
Millimeter
-
wave Monolithic Circuits Symposium Digest
, pp. 99-101, June 1988.
[4] M. Aust, H. Wang, R. Carandang, K. Tan, C. H, Chen, T. Trinh, R. Esfandiari and H. C. Yen, “GaAs monolithic components development for Q-Band phased array application,” in 1992
IEEE MTT
-
S International Microwave Symposium Digest
, vol. 2, pp.703-706, June 1991.
[5] D. L. Ingram, K. Cha, K. Hubbard, and R. Lai, “Q-band high isolation GaAs HEMT switches,” in 1996
IEEE GaAs IC Symp. Dig
., Orlando, Fla., pp. 289-282, November 1996.
[6] D.C. W. Lo, H. Wang, Barry R. Allen, G. S. Dow, Kwo Wei Chang, Michael Biedenbender, Richard Lai, Sian Chen, Daniel Yang, “Novel monolithic multifunctional balanced switching low-noise amplifiers,”
IEEE Trans, on Microwave Theory and Tech
., vol. 42, no. 12, pp 2629-2634, November 1998.
[7] H. Mizutani, N. Funabashi, M. Kuzuhara, Y. Takayama, “Compact DC-60-GHz HJFET MMIC switches using ohmic electrode-sharing technology,”
IEEE Trans. on Microwave Theory and Tech
., vol. 46, no. 11, pp. 1597-1603, November 1998.
[8] Kenichi Maruhashi, Hiroshi Mizutani, Keiichi Ohata, “Design and performance of a Ka-band monolithic phase shifter utilizing nonresonant FET switches,”
IEEE Trans on Microwave Theory and tech
., vol. 48, no. 8, pp. 1313-1317, August 2000.
[9] Yu-Jiu Wang, Kun-You Lin, Dow-Chih Niu, and Huei Wang, “A V-band MMIC SPDT passive HEMT switch using impedance transformation networks,” in 2001
IEEE MTT
-
S International Microwave Symposium Digest
., Phoenix, vol. 1, pp. 253-256, May, 2001.
OBJECT OF THE INVENTION
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a millimeter-wave passive FET switch using impedance transformation networks, utilizing the standard HEMT manufacturing process to reduce the layout of the chip, and to enhance the performance of the high frequency switch.
REFERENCES:
patent: 3662294 (1972-05-01), Jacobs et al.
patent: 3965445 (1976-06-01), Ou
patent: 5012123 (1991-04-01), Ayasli et al.
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patent: 5786737 (1998-07-01), Goto
patent: 6054907 (2000-04-01), Sjogren
Howard Stone “Resonace” Web pp. 1-3 Jan. 25, 1997.
Lin Kun-You
Wang Huei
Wang Yu-Jiu
Bacon & Thomas PLLC
Glenn Kimberly
Pascal Robert
Taiwan University
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