A Novel 5-30GHz Voltage Controlled Variable Attenuator with High Linearity in a Low Cost SMD Compact Package

Author

Poitrenaud, N. ; Lefebvre, B. ; Tranchant, S. ; Camiade, M.

Author_Institution

United Monolithic Semicond., Orsay Cedex

fYear

2006

fDate

10-13 Sept. 2006

Firstpage

269

Lastpage

272

Abstract

The design and performance of a compact packaged 5-30GHz variable attenuator are reported in this paper. Using a standard 4-inch 0.7mum GaAs power MESFET technology with BCB coating and backside metallization, these shunt-type packaged attenuator exhibits more than 25dB dynamic range, with a nominal insertion loss from 3 to 6dB over the 5-30GHz frequency band. Using multi-gates FETs and biasing voltage sequential control, input power compression of more than 25 to 30dBm is achieved. To allow a significant cost reduction for RF module assembly, this voltage attenuator MMIC is housed in a standard 16L-QFN3times3 SMD molded package. To the author´s knowledge, these results show the highest linearity reported up to now for a voltage variable attenuator in a SMD package

Keywords

MESFET integrated circuits; MMIC; attenuators; gallium arsenide; metallisation; packaging; power MESFET; power integrated circuits; 0.7 micron; 4 inch; 5 to 30 GHz; BCB coating; GaAs; SMD package; backside metallization; high linearity; low cost SMD compact package; multigates FET; power MESFET; shunt-type packaged attenuator; voltage attenuator MMIC; voltage controlled variable attenuator; Attenuators; Coatings; Costs; Dynamic range; Gallium arsenide; Linearity; MESFETs; Metallization; Packaging; Voltage control; Attenuator; GaAs MMIC; QFN; SMD; VVA; dynamic range; high linearity; package;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

European Microwave Integrated Circuits Conference, 2006. The 1st

Conference_Location

Manchester

Print_ISBN

2-9600551-8-7

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/EMICC.2006.282804

Filename

4057627