The generation and transmission of millimeter-wave signals for 5G applications require the use of broadband and high output power photodetectors to bridge from the optical and electronic domains. Therefore, the deep knowledge on the equivalent circuit characteristics of these devices is vital. This study reviews and analyzes de-embedding techniques contributing to the characterization of the physical aspects within the active region of uni-traveling carrier photodiodes. De-embedding methods analytically remove the parasitic effects of the electrical transmission lines connected to their active area allowing the extraction of their series resistance and junction capacitance toward the synthesis of an equivalent circuit with lumped elements. The open-short technique is examined and a systematic error introduced by this process underlines the vulnerability of the method on removing parasitics with higher complexity. This error is quantified leading to the implementation of a corrected equation converging with the characteristic features of an $S$-parameter-based de-embedding. These characteristics are also analyzed through simulation approaches showing minimal equivalent inaccuracies on eliminating more complex symmetrical parasitics. A thorough comparison between these three methods is conducted through the calculation of lumped components corresponding to the active region of diodes with different sizes.

The present paper presents a very efficient technique for enhancing the pointing accuracy in beam-waveguide (BWG) antennas and its application to the deep space antenna DSA2 of the European Space Agency. The proposed technique permits to achieve a twofold result: on the one hand, it provides a solution to the beam aberration issue, arising when the antenna simultaneously receives from and transmits to a spacecraft moving in the transversal direction. On the other hand, it allows to perform a fast conical scan to enhance the pointing accuracy of the antenna. Both results are achieved by simple linear displacements of feeds and mirrors located in the lower part of the BWG, with a very limited deterioration of the antenna gain. The required displacements of feeds and mirrors are determined through a fast optimization algorithm, based on a top-down approach, which requires repeated physical–optics analyses of the lower part of the beam waveguide only, with a significant reduction in the computing time.

This paper proposed a compact planar monopole antenna operating at 5 GHz (5.180–5.825 GHz) industrial, scientific and medical (ISM) radio band. The antenna constructed with 20 mm × 12 mm radiating element and 25 mm square of the ground plane in FR4 substrate provided −10 dB bandwidth of 1 GHz (5.4–6.4 GHz). To improve the bandwidth, parasitic elements are added with the monopole antenna. A capacitive feed is also incorporated in the design. It observed that the proposed antenna with parasitic elements provides a larger impedance bandwidth of about 3 GHz (5.1–8.1 GHz), which is three-fold improvements over the one without parasitic patches. The prototype of the antenna that operates at 5.8 GHz frequency range is fabricated and characterized using a near-field measurement system. A good agreement is found between the simulation and measured results.

This paper presents design, fabrication, and testing of a palm tree structured monopole antenna for wideband applications. The proposed antenna has a wide impedance bandwidth (−10 dB bandwidth) from 4 to 10.4 GHz. Palm tree antenna of compact size 23 mm × 20 mm is designed and fabricated on an FR4 substrate of thickness 1.6 mm. To validate the design, a mathematical relationship between the parameters of the palm tree geometry and the lower cut-off frequency has been established. Parametric study has been carried out to obtain optimum wideband characteristics. The prototype is experimentally validated for the band 4–10.4 GHz within ultra-wideband operations. Transfer function, impulse response and Group delay has been plotted in order to address the time domain characteristics of the palm tree antenna with fidelity factor values. The possible applications cover 5.2–5.8 GHz WLAN, C-band operations, 5.5 GHz WiMAX, and Wireless USB.

A compact multi-layer N-way power-dividing structure with good isolation and output return loss performance is proposed. The isolation network is circularly distributed that constitutes a closed ring-shaped architecture. The equivalent circuit model is given and the [S] matrix is developed to analyse and design the power-dividing structure. Finally, a six-way power divider centered at 2.1 GHz is designed and fabricated. The measured and simulated results agree well with each other. The total size of the power divider is 0.13λg × 0.19λg.

This paper presents a comprehensive study on the design of a 30 GHz, circularly polarized (CP), single horn-fed, metallic electromagnetic band gap (EBG) antenna. Three different approaches have been studied in order to create a 20 dBi antenna with an axial ratio (AR) lower than 1 dB over a 500 MHz bandwidth. Based on theoretical and experimental results, a conclusion is given on the best solution to obtain the desired characteristics. Perspectives and guidelines are also given for the design of multi-feed EBG antenna as a reflector focal feed for Ka-Band Space Applications.

A compact dual-band microstrip bandpass filter (BPF) is presented for application at the frequencies 2.4 and 5.84 GHz. The proposed main resonator consists of two L-shaped resonators. To improve the upper-stopband of the proposed filter, modified U-Shaped resonators are accepted. The operation mechanism of the filter is investigated based on proffered equivalent-circuit model and transformation function. The sketched dual-band BPF attends the insertion loss less than 0.1 and 0.4 dB Also the return loss is 26 and 28 dB at 2.4 and 5.84, respectively. This proffered filter structure is proper for Bluetooth and wireless local area networks and other wireless communication systems. An overall good agreement between measured and simulated results is observed.

In this paper, three compact, high-efficiency, gain enhanced antennas, and corresponding rectifiers have been proposed for GSM1800, 3G, and 4G-LTE energy harvesting applications. The inverted L-stub is placed on the ground plane of the monopole antenna to get the desired frequency band of GSM1800 MHz. The feed length variation method has been adopted for the slot antennas to obtain the required frequency of 3G and 4G-LTE cellular bands. The performance of antennas is analyzed with the inverted L-stub, feed length variation, and the reflector distance. The maximum gain achieved with the reflector positioned at a distance of λ/4 from the antenna backside is three times greater than the gain obtained without the reflector. The prototype antennas and rectifiers have been simulated, fabricated, measured various parameters, and compared with the simulation results. The antennas provide more than 82% radiation efficiency and an enhanced gain of greater than 5.6 dB. The peak efficiency of rectifiers of more than 30% has been achieved. The aforementioned three antennas are integrated with their corresponding rectifiers for operating at 1.8, 2.1, and 2.3 GHz frequencies. The proposed rectennas are formidably suitable for the reception of RF power from the cellular bands.

The purpose of this paper is to disclose improved crystal based frequency source system covering design techniques and experimental methodologies for the stabilization of phase noise performance of X-band phase-locked loop (PLL) at 10.6 GHz. Phase noise performance of PLL-based unit under test (UUT) is prone to disturbance occurred in random vibration profile frequency spectrum. UUT self-resonance plays vital role in occurrence of disturbance in random vibration profile. The stabilization of phase noise performance during dynamic (random) vibration condition is achieved by following methodologies, i.e. vibration-isolator compensation techniques, purification tactic for reference crystal of PLL, and spatial location analysis for finding out mounting position of reference crystal. Spatial analysis helps to filter out UUT self-resonance frequency from random vibration spectrum which leads to reduction of frequency resonance pickups during random vibration testing.

This paper presents a high-efficiency linear GaN K-band transmitter for broadband high peak-average power ratio (PAPR) signals. A GaN MMIC 18.5–24 GHz three-stage power amplifier with over 4 W peak output power, 20 dB saturated gain, and 40% peak PAE is supply-modulated with a four-level discrete dynamic supply GaN MMIC. For 100 MHz signals with ${\rm PAPR}\gt 10\, {\rm dB}$, we demonstrate an average efficiency improvement from 14 to 20% with a simultaneous linearity improvement in noise power ratio (NPR) from 23 to 26 dB through a shaping function focused on gain linearization. For 250 MHz signal bandwidth, there is no observed degradation in NPR and the efficiency is improved by 5 percentage points. For discrete supply modulation, the switching transients between levels are experimentally investigated for wideband signals.

This paper considers and compares the numerical characterization of regular planar antenna arrays from two viewpoints. In the case where the array is sufficiently large, the well-known infinite array idealization applies and a very efficient simulation method is presented which combines array theory with a specialized form of the finite-element method called the transfinite element method (TFEM). Alternatively, a more direct approach is discussed in which the entire antenna array is simulated as a finite structure using recent advances in the domain decomposition method (DDM). Taken together, the two methods provide a comprehensive simulation method for regular arrays from small order to very large order.

This letter presents a novel tunable coupling structure to simplify the design complexity of the miniaturized fully tunable filter by using open ring and varactors. Based on the proposed novel tunable coupling structure, a fully tunable bandpass filter is implemented with independently tunable operating frequency and bandwidth. The tunable resonator and tunable coupling structure can be easily combined to improve Out-of-band suppression performance. The design procedure of a fully tunable bandpass filter consists of five tunable cavities and tunable coupling rings is also proposed. A prototype of the proposed fully tunable filter is built to verify the design experimentally. Good agreement between simulated and measured results is obtained.

This paper outlines a new class of quad-band amplifier (QBA) realized using extended composite right- and left-handed coupled lines. The design procedure to reach the QB CLs with predefined frequency operations and characteristic impedance of their ports is clearly presented. Designed and fabricated QBA operation frequencies are $f_{b_{1}} = 2.9\,GHz$ and ${\rm \;} f_{b_2} = 4.3\,GHz$ (output port B) ${\bi \;} \; f_{f_1} = 3.8\,GHz\; $ and $\; \; f_{f_2} = 5\,GHz\; $ (output port C) and the proposed structure exhibits a matching (−10 dB) bandwidth of over 300 MHz in each operation frequency bands. In addition, the insertion loss is smaller than 1 dB. The length and the width of the proposed QBA are approximately 7.7 and 2.4 cm, respectively. To further demonstrate the idea, a QBA is successfully designed and fabricated. The simulated and measured results of the proposed QBA are presented to verify the proposed idea.

The detailed synthesis of a direct access ring filter topology fully controlled with the following targeted specification (center frequency, low transmission zero frequency, and matching level in the passband) is hereby presented. For this topology, the lowest achievable bandwidth is limited by technological constraints. Thereby a solution consisting in adding capacitive loads is proposed. The associated synthesis is also given and discussed. Both syntheses are illustrated with 60 GHz integrated planar filters implemented in the IHP 130 nm BiCMOS technology. Various 3 dB fractional bandwidths from 18 to 8% are targeted, some of them require the implementation of the capacitive loaded solution. The latter allows us to lower the bandwidth limit of the nominal topology as well as to get a high miniaturization, up to 3.4, depending on the capacitance value. Thanks to good measurement results, this implementation highlights the high efficiency, reliability, and versatility of the synthesis without the need of tuning simulations or post-simulations.

This paper presents the development of a reconfigurable receiver to undertake challenging signal processing tasks for a novel polarimetric radar system. The field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs)-based digital receiver samples incoming signals at intermediate frequency (IF) and processes signals digitally instead of using conventional analog approaches. It offers more robust system stability and avoids unnecessary multichannel calibrations of analog circuits for a full polarimetric radar. Two kinds of dual-orthogonal signals together with corresponding processing algorithms have been investigated; the digital implementation architectures for all algorithms are then presented. Processing algorithms implemented in FPGA chips can be reconfigured adaptively regarding to different transmitted waveforms without modification of hardware. The successful development of such reconfigurable receiver extends our radar capacity and thus yields tremendous experimental flexibility for atmospheric remote sensing and polarimetric studies of ground-based targets.

This paper is focused on explaining the radiation test in temperature performed on the Engineering and Qualification Model of the Medium Gain Antenna Radiofrequency (MGA-RFA) Assembly of ESA's BepiColombo mission. The goal of this program is to observe and study Mercury and its surroundings in a very demanding environment in terms of temperature and radiation. The MGA is an X-band two-axis steerable horn, which provides bidirectional communications between spacecraft and Earth as backup of the High Gain Antenna and also operates as primary communication link at several mission stages or conditions. The paper presents the measurement set-up for the qualification campaign of the antenna, where it was necessary to characterize the antenna in a representative thermal environment, and the results obtained from this test. Results of test up to 150°C show how gain and radiation pattern shapes are slightly affected by thermal stress, but without jeopardizing mission requirements. In addition, by analyzing correlation of this test with RF analysis in the same thermal conditions, it becomes possible to accurately extrapolate the MGA-RFA behavior up to temperatures of more than 500°C. This fact allowed the successful space qualification of this model.

In this paper, two second-order electronically tunable bandpass filters are presented. The filters are implemented in microstrip technology using barium–strontium–titanate (BST) varactors and digitally tunable capacitors (DTC) for tuning the frequency response of the bandpass filters. The filter realized using BST varactors has a 35% tuning range from 900 MHz to 1.275 GHz with an insertion loss variation from 3.1 to 2.6 dB. The absolute bandwidth is nearly constant over the entire tuning range, varying from 64 to 72 MHz (around ±5% variation). The filter realized using DTCs also has a 36% tuning range from 850 MHz to 1.225 GHz with an insertion loss variation from 3.1 to 1.5 dB. The absolute bandwidth is constant over the tuning range, varying from 88 to 98 MHz (around ±5% variation). The bandpass filters are tuned using a single control signal. The tunable bandpass filters are proposed for use in reconfigurable radios.

This paper demonstrates a highly efficient 3-stage Doherty power amplifier (PA) employing an envelope tracking (ET) technique. The ‘3-stage’ Doherty PA is the most efficient architecture for a high peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR) signal among the various Doherty PAs. However, because of the lower peaking biases than those of the ‘N-way’ Doherty PA, the proper load modulation is hard to be achieved. To get proper modulation, the peaking PAs' gate biases have been adaptively controlled using the ET technique, and the peak power and maximum efficiency characteristic along the backed-off output power region is successfully achieved. By ADS and Matlab simulations, the overall behavior of the 3-stage Doherty PA employing the ET technique has been fully analyzed. To maximize the overall efficiency of the proposed 3-stage Doherty PA, the unit PA has been designed using class F−1 PA. For verification, the amplifier is implemented using 5 W and 10 W PEP LDMOSFETs for the 802.16e mobile world interoperability for microwave access (WiMAX) at 1 GHz with a 8.5 dB PAPR. The measured drain efficiency of the proposed 3-stage Doherty PA is 55.5% at an average output power of 37 dBm, which is a 7.54 dB backed-off output power. The digital feedback predistortion (DFBPD) algorithm has been used to linearize the proposed PA considering the ET technique. After linearization, the −33.15 dB of relative constellation error (RCE) performance is achieved, satisfying the system specification. These results show that the 3-stage Doherty employing the ET technique and saturated PA is the most suitable PA for the highly efficient and linear transmitter.

A MMIC double-balanced subharmonic diode ring mixer was designed for broadband satellite communications exploiting a GaAs pHEMT process. The circuit implements the frequency conversion from Q (43.5–50 GHz) to Ku-K band (17–21.5 GHz). Besides the RF, LO, and IF baluns, the MMIC integrates a buffer amplifier for the local oscillator signal, which is designed between X and Ku bands (11–16.5 GHz), due to the subharmonic operation. The mixer measured conversion loss is between 8 and 12 dB along the bandwidth, with an LO power of 9 dBm. The input p1 dB and IP3 are 2 and 15 dBm, respectively. The balanced structure ensures an LO and 2 × LO leakages at the IF port lower than −25 and −35 dBm, respectively. Other spurious remain below −67 dBc. The chip dimensions are 2.4 × 2.4 mm2.

An effective linearization technique capable of equalizing IM3 products resulting from an arbitrary out-of-band blocking scenario in a wideband direct conversion receiver is presented. IM3 products are regenerated in the RF analog domain of a low-power mixed-signal feedforward path and are used to cancel analogous signal terms in the original receiver at digital baseband via adaptive equalization. The composite SAW-less receiver achieves an improvement in effective IIP3 from −7.1 to +5.3 dBm under worst-case UMTS Region 1 blocking when the feedforward path is active.