Highly integrated and compact W-band front-end for radiometry application

Abstract

Using conventional 0.25 /spl mu/m HEMT (VLN02 process) and pseudomorphic 0.15 /spl mu/m HEMT (MM015 process), a highly integrated and low power consumption receiver has been developed for a W-band radiometer. All the millimeter-wave functions and even the first stage of IF amplifier are fully integrated on MMIC technology according to a multifunction approach. A compact housing has been developed for chip integration. A high performance oscillator at LO sub-harmonic provides less than -93 dBc/Hz at 100 kHz from carrier at 46.6 GHz. The complete front-end assembly exhibits more than 20 dB conversion gain and less than 6.5 dB noise figure around 93.5 GHz RF frequency and 100 to 600 MHz associated IF frequency. To our knowledge this realization is the first report of a fully monolithic W-band complete front-end based on industrial HEMT technologies and dedicated to space applications.