Monolithic and quasimonolithic mm-wave modules and devices

The progress in mm-wave technology is associated with appearance of monolithic integrated circuits replacing hybrid integrated circuits. As soon as in the middle 80-s considerable results were achieved in this field. Monolithic design using microstrip transmission lines had been spread on balanced mixers, frequency multipliers, low-noise IF and power amplifiers, phase shifters and so on. In the Scientific Research Institute of Semiconductor Devices (ISD), first attempts to create monolithic mm-wave circuits are related to early 80-s, and at the end of the decade the commercial balanced mixers (MBM) based on monolithic technique - monolithic balanced mixers (MBM) - had been worked out for 3-mm and 2-mm wavebands. Later, the same principles had been applied for monolithic detectors, multipliers, modulators, limiters etc. In common, general enough technical feature had come around, applicable for a variety of monolithic mm-wave circuits as well as for RF devices based upon them