The IRIDIUM K-band MMIC chip set

Abstract

A set of 16 K-band MMIC chips has been developed for the satellites in the IRIDIUM communications program. Both high power and low noise 0.25 /spl mu/m PHEMT technologies were used to develop this MMIC chip set. The MMICs consist of a broad band frequency doubler, up and down converters, high power amplifiers, variable gain amplifiers, low noise amplifiers, and an IF amplifier. A noise figure of less than 3.3 dB at 29 GHz and output power of over 4 watts at 23.3 GHz were achieved with no RF tuning. This paper describes statistical device characterization, design details, measured results, and integration of these MMIC chips into a high density multi-chip module (MCM).<>