Chen Xi, Hu Anyong, Gong Jianhao, Altaf Amjad, Miao Jungang
School of Electronic and Information Engineering, Beihang University, Beijing 100191, China.
Center for Excellence in Applied Sciences & Technology (CESAT), Islamabad 44800, Pakistan.
Sensors (Basel). 2022 Jul 29;22(15):5695. doi: 10.3390/s22155695.
This paper presents the coupling effects analysis and suppression of a highly integrated receiver front-end MMIC for a passive millimeter-wave imager system. The receiver MMIC consists of a low-noise amplifier, double-balanced image-reject mixer, frequency quadrupler, and analog phase shifter. In order to integrate these devices into a compact single chip without affecting the core performance, coupling problems need to be solved. We analyze the influence of coupling effects on the image rejection ratio, and propose corresponding solutions for three different coupling paths. (1) The coupling in the LO-RF path of the mixer is solved by designing a double-balanced mixer with high isolation characteristics. (2) The coupling between the LO chain and the LNA from space and dielectric is suppressed by optimizing the two main transmission lines spacing and adding isolation vias. (3) The coupling caused by the line crossing is restrained by designing a differential line crossover structure. The design and implementation of the MMIC are based on 0.15 µm GaAs pHEMT process. The receiver chip has 6.18.7 dB conversion gain in 3236 GHz, less than 3.5 dB of noise figure, and more than 35 dB of image rejection ratio. The measurement results show that the receiver MMIC is especially suitable for high-sensitivity passive millimeter-wave imaging systems.
本文介绍了一种用于无源毫米波成像系统的高度集成接收机前端单片微波集成电路(MMIC)的耦合效应分析与抑制。该接收机MMIC由一个低噪声放大器、双平衡镜像抑制混频器、四倍频器和模拟移相器组成。为了将这些器件集成到一个紧凑的单芯片中而不影响核心性能,需要解决耦合问题。我们分析了耦合效应对镜像抑制比的影响,并针对三种不同的耦合路径提出了相应的解决方案。(1)通过设计具有高隔离特性的双平衡混频器来解决混频器本振-射频(LO-RF)路径中的耦合问题。(2)通过优化两条主传输线的间距并添加隔离过孔来抑制本振链路与低噪声放大器之间因空间和介质引起的耦合。(3)通过设计差分线交叉结构来抑制线路交叉引起的耦合。该MMIC的设计与实现基于0.15μm砷化镓赝配高电子迁移率晶体管(GaAs pHEMT)工艺。该接收机芯片在3236GHz频段具有6.18.7dB的转换增益、小于3.5dB的噪声系数以及大于35dB的镜像抑制比。测量结果表明,该接收机MMIC特别适用于高灵敏度无源毫米波成像系统。