A Cascaded Terminating-Type and Capacitive-Type Power Sensor for −10- to 22-dBm Application

• Published in: IEEE electron device letters Vol. 37; no. 4; pp. 489 - 491
• Main Authors: Yi, Zhenxiang, Liao, Xiaoping
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York IEEE 01-04-2016; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: Devices; Gallium arsenide; MEMS membrane; Microelectromechanical systems; Micromechanical devices; Microwave circuits; Microwave communication; MMIC (circuits); MMICs; Power measurement; RF power sensor; Sensors; Terminating-type; GaAs MMIC; RF power sensor; terminating-type; MEMS membrane; capacitive type
• ISSN: 0741-3106; 1558-0563
• DOI: 10.1109/LED.2016.2532920

In this letter, a new cascaded terminating-type and capacitive-type power sensor is proposed for -10- to 22-dBm application. The terminating-type power sensor is designed for the low-power detection, while the capacitive-type power sensor is for high-power detection. This device is based on microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) technology and fabricated by GaAs monolithic microwave integrated circuit process. The tested return loss is about -23 dB at 8 GHz, -21.5 dB at 10 GHz, and -20 dB at 12 GHz. For the incident power from 1 to 100 mW, the terminating-type sensor operates, and the measured sensitivity is close to 0.132 mV/mW at 8 GHz, 0.124 mV/mW at 10 GHz, and 0.125 mV/mW at 12 GHz, respectively. For the incident power from 100 to 150 mW, the capacitive-type sensor works, and the measured sensitivity is about 0.160 fF/mW at 8 GHz, 0.156 fF/mW at 10 GHz, and 0.145 fF/mW at 12 GHz, respectively.