A novel microwave cross-point switch MMIC employing thyristors for broadband services

A novel GaAs 16/spl times/16 cross-point switch MMIC is presented. The switch MMIC incorporates 256 GaAs microwave thyristor devices as the switching elements. The thyristors are two terminal devices with anodes connected to a common horizontal electrode and cathodes connected to a common vertical electrode. The bistable operation of the thyristors permits x-y addressing at the edge of the chip to turn on and off each thyristor. Applications include low cost, low power, high bandwidth switching of signals for broadband services. A detailed description of the thyristor device, MMIC structure and design, and simulation and experimental results are presented.