Abstract
For passive mm-wave imaging applications, broadband mm-wave receivers
functioning within atmospheric windows are highly desired. Within
this paper, a heterodyne receiver chipset utilizing the 140 GHz atmospheric
window is presented. The heterodyne chipset is based on two different
millimeter-wave monolithic integrated circuits (MIMICs). One is the
receiver MIMIC including a low-noise amplifier, a down-conversion
mixer, a frequency multiplier and a local oscillator buffer amplifier
together with a local oscillator distribution network. The other
is a voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO) working in the 35 GHz frequency
range to generate the local oscillator signal for the receiver (down-converter)
chip. The process technology chosen to realize the chipset is a 100
nm gatelength metamorphic InAlAs/InGaAs high electron mobility transistor
(HEMT) technology on 50 \#x03BC;m thick and 4 inch diameter GaAs substrates.
The chips are utilizing a grounded coplanar waveguide (GCPW) technology.
For an operation frequency band from 120 to 145 GHz, the receiver
demonstrates a flat conversion gain between -1 and +2 dB with a power
consumption of 120 mW. The VCO is tuneable from 31 to 37 GHz with
associated output power levels from -2 to +1 dBm. Detailed descriptions
of the individual building blocks are given and measured results
are presented for the building blocks as well as for the receiver.
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