Design of an absorptive MMIC switch for satellite communication system

• Published in: Microwave and optical technology letters Vol. 46; no. 4; pp. 369 - 371
• Main Authors: Yom, In-Bok, Ryu, Keun-Kwan, Shin, Dong-Hwan, Park, Jong-Heung, Lee, Moon-Que
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Hoboken Wiley Subscription Services, Inc., A Wiley Company 20-08-2005
• Subjects: MMIC; satellite communication system; switch; switch matrix
• ISSN: 0895-2477; 1098-2760
• DOI: 10.1002/mop.20989

A monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC) switch chip is developed using the InGaAs/GaAs p‐HEMT process for the switch matrix of a satellite communication system. An absorptive MMIC switch is designed for good reflection‐coefficient performances of the input and output ports at both on‐ and off‐states. A quarter‐wavelength impedance transformer is realized with the lumped elements of an MIM capacitor and a spiral inductor at 3 GHz band in order to reduce the chip size. The MMIC switch covers the frequency range 3.2–3.6 GHz. According to the on‐wafer measurement, the fabricated MMIC switch with a miniature size of 1.6 × 1.3 mm demonstrates insertion loss below 2 dB and isolation above 56.8 dB, and the measured performance agrees well with the simulation results. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 46: 369–371, 2005; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/mop.20989