A GaAs MMIC chipset in SMT packages for a wide band ESM system

A highly integrated multifunction GaAs MMIC chipset intended for wide band signal detection in the C-, X-, and Ku-band has been developed and verified. The chipset consists of three chips with amplification, frequency conversion, gain-control, and signal distribution within the frequency range 2-25 GHz. The chipset enables sub-band selection within 5-18 GHz and consecutive transformation into a lower frequency band of 2-5 GHz, including out of sub-band filtering. The transformation of frequency band is solved by signal mixing in two steps, filtering the signal in-between. The first mixer is based on a single balanced resistive FET mixer in order to improve suppression of unwanted IM-products, while the second mixer is a single FET mixer, optimizing for a small circuit layout. For the in-between filtering, a semi-lumped filter design is chosen. To reduce production costs all chips are mounted in packages to enable surface mount techniques (SMT). The chipset is intended for integration in a low cost wide band electronic support measure (ESM) system.