Continuous Broadband GaAs and GaN MMIC Phase Shifters
- Resource Type
- Periodical
- Authors
- Robinson, M.; Danielson, P.; Popovic, Z.
- Source
- IEEE Microwave and Wireless Components Letters IEEE Microw. Wireless Compon. Lett. Microwave and Wireless Components Letters, IEEE. 32(1):56-59 Jan, 2022
- Subject
- Fields, Waves and Electromagnetics
Communication, Networking and Broadcast Technologies
Signal Processing and Analysis
Phase shifters
Gallium arsenide
Transmission line measurements
Broadband communication
Voltage measurement
Frequency measurement
Transistors
Broadband
GaAs
GaN
monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC)
phase shifter
- Language
- ISSN
- 1531-1309
1558-1764
We describe the design of two broadband monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC) loaded-line reflective phase shifters and their performance over the 6–12-GHz band. Lange couplers with transistor-loaded transmission-line reactive loads provide variable phase shift through reverse-bias control. A GaAs phase shifter with four diode-connected transistors in each of the two reactive loads is designed with discrete inductors to provide an increasing phase shift with frequency. A GaN reflective phase shifter uses 14 transistors in each reactive load with a goal of increasing the phase shift across the band. Measurements show continuous phase shift from 40° to 70° with less than 6-dB insertion loss over the 6–10-GHz band and from 60° to 165° with less than 8-dB insertion loss across the 8–12-GHz band for the GaAs and GaN MMICs, respectively. The power performance of the MMICs is compared in terms of large-signal $S$ -parameters, harmonics, and IP3. The GaN phase shifter exhibits similar level of harmonic generation like the GaAs device at a 20-dB higher input power.