High power AlGaN/GaN Ku-band MMIC SPDT switch and design consideration

Author

Ma, Bob Y. ; Boutros, Karim S. ; Hacker, Jonathan B. ; Nagy, Gabor

Author_Institution

Teledyne Scientific Company, 1049 Camino Dos Rios, Thousand Oaks, CA 91360, U.S.A.

fYear

2008

fDate

15-20 June 2008

Firstpage

1473

Lastpage

1476

Abstract

An AlGaN/GaN HEMT Ku-band MMIC single pole double throw (SPDT) switch has been fabricated and characterized. Due to the high breakdown voltage and the high electron mobility of the AlGaN/GaN HEMT, this switch has high power handling capability and low insertion loss. It does not require DC power consumption, unlike the PIN diode switch, and it has higher power handling than the GaAs FET switch. The reported SPDT switch has 1.4 dB insertion loss, 35 dB isolation, and 36 dBm input RF power at the 1 dB compression point (P_1dB) at 18 GHz. Additionally, design considerations that are unique to the AlGaN/GaN switch will be presented. We performed multiple design variations of a single pole single throw (SPST) switch and we report on the effect of these variations on the performance.

Keywords

HEMT integrated circuits; III-V semiconductors; MMIC; aluminium compounds; gallium compounds; integrated circuit design; microwave switches; semiconductor device breakdown; AlGaN-GaN; frequency 18 GHz; high breakdown voltage; high electron mobility; high power Ku-band MMIC SPDT switch; loss 1.4 dB; single pole double throw; Aluminum gallium nitride; Electron mobility; Energy consumption; FETs; Gallium arsenide; Gallium nitride; HEMTs; Insertion loss; MMICs; Switches; AlGaN/GaN; GaN; high power; monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC); switch;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Microwave Symposium Digest, 2008 IEEE MTT-S International

Conference_Location

Atlanta, GA

ISSN

0149-645X

Print_ISBN

978-1-4244-1780-3

Electronic_ISBN

0149-645X

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/MWSYM.2008.4633058

Filename

4633058