Adjustment of a temperature compensated Ka-band ring resonator VCO using fully automated laser-trimming

Abstract

A new Ka-band voltage controlled oscillator ( W O ) using a planar ring resonator (RR) and a GaAspHEMT microwave monolithic integrated circuit (MMIC) is presented. The resonator operates at harmonic frequencies and is manufactured on a temperature stable calcium magnesium titanate substrate using photo-lithographic thinfilm processes. An innovative fully automated active lasertrimming procedure is used to adjust the frequency of the free-running oscillator as well as the varactor tuning sensitivity. In addition, automated laser-trimming is used to equalize the electrical length between the ring resonator and the MMIC.High unloaded quality factors of more than 350 have been obtained for the harmonic ring resonator. With these high quality factors a single side-band phase noise of better than -1lOdBciHz is achieved at an offset frequency of 1MHz. In addition, the frequency tuning range of the laser-trimming procedure is larger than 10% without any significant change of the VCO's characteristics like phase noise and varactor tuning sensitivity. The typical temperature drift of the oscillator frequency is less than 4ppmlK.We use a RR-VCO with an electrical length of four wavelengths, which is phase-locked to an external reference, as local oscillator in our latest microwave Point-to-Multipoint (PMP) transceivers.

High-temperature threshold characteristics of a symmetrically graded InAlAs∕InxGa1−xAs∕GaAs metamorphic high electron mobility transistor

“…It can also trap the dislocations injected into the InGaAs channel and consequently enable the realization of high-speed performance with improved yields. In addition, high power microwave or millimeter-wave integrated circuit ͑MWIC͒ applications 8,9 require device designs with improved thermal stability. Deviations of device characteristics, including the threshold voltages, breakdown voltages, and transconductance degradation at high ambient temperature, would greatly cause the kink-effect-related 10 thermal runaway to deteriorate the circuit operation.…”