Practical aspects of manufacturing millimeter wave products in a "real world" environment

Abstract

A range of millimeter wave components are presented and discussed. The components include transmission lines, a 36 GHz 3 dB coupler, Ku-band filter structures of LPF and BSF types up to 20 GHz, a discrete and MIMIC LNA design concept, and a Ka-band power amplifier (PA) for military purposes. The transmission lines perform very well to 40 GHz exhibiting low loss -1.741 dB (average) and respectable input reflection coefficient -19.89 (average). A millimeter wave coupling structure centre frequency of 36 GHz has been realised enabling power combining at Ka-band with low coupling loss achievable. The filters manufactured illustrate that good convergance between simulated and measured data can be achieved with linear simulators. LNA's in a concept discrete design (6 dB NF, 5 dB gain) and MIMIC (3.57 dB NF, 16.4 dB gain) environment are covered. With PA's frequently being the primary focus in a communication system, a Ka-band PA design (P/sub sat/ approaching +30 dBm) is considered.