Philippe Ferrari

High-Performance Shielded Coplanar Waveguides for the Design of CMOS 60-GHz Bandpass Filters

This paper presents optimized very high performance CMOS slow-wave shielded CPW transmission lines (S-CPW TLines). They are used to realize a 60-GHz bandpass filter, with T-junctions and open stubs. Owing to a strong slow-wave effect, the longitudinal length of the S-CPW is reduced by a factor up to 2.6 compared to a classical microstrip topology in the same technology. Moreover, the quality factor of the realized S-CPWs reaches 43 at 60 GHz, which is about two times higher than the microstrip one and corresponds to the state of the art concerning S-CPW TLines with moderate width. For a proof of concept of complex passive device realization, two millimeter-wave filters working at 60 GHz based on dual-behavior-resonator filters have been designed with these S-CPWs and measured up to 110 GHz. The measured insertion loss for the first-order (respectively, second-order) filter is -2.6 dB (respectively, -4.1 dB). The comparison with a classical microstrip topology and the state-of-the-art CMOS filter results highlights the very good performance of the realized filters in terms of unloaded quality factor. It also shows the potential of S-CPW TLines for the design of high-performance complex CMOS passive devices.

Tunable Bandstop Defected Ground Structure Resonator Using Reconfigurable Dumbbell-Shaped Coplanar Waveguide

A modification of the conventional dumbbell-shaped coplanar waveguide defected ground structure (DGS) is proposed. This modification permits the continuous tuning of the rejected frequencies by using reconfiguration technique and it allows the control of the DGS equivalent-circuit model. The modified DGS possesses two-dimensional symmetry, hence, it has been studied under different symmetry conditions and the corresponding equivalent-circuit model in each case has been developed. Based upon this study, a tunable bandstop DGS resonator is proposed. 19% tuning range centered at 3.7 and 7.4 GHz, respectively, is achieved. The equivalent-circuit model of the resonator is also developed. All proposed structures have been fabricated. Measurements as well as three-dimensional simulations are found to be in a very good agreement with theoretical predictions

Synthesis Methodology Applied to a Tunable Patch Filter With Independent Frequency and Bandwidth Control

A new methodology for the synthesis of tunable patch filters is presented. The methodology helps the designer to perform a theoretical analysis of the filter through a coupling matrix that includes the effect of the tuning elements used to tune the filter. This general methodology accounts for any tuning parameter desired and was applied to the design of a tunable dual-mode patch filter with independent control of center frequency and bandwidth (BW). The bandpass filter uses a single triangular resonator with two etched slots that split the fundamental degenerate modes and form the filter passband. Varactor diodes assembled across the slots are used to vary the frequency of each degenerate fundamental mode independently, which is feasible due to the nature of the coupling scheme of the filter. The varactor diode model used in simulations, their assembling, the dc bias configuration, and measured results are presented. The theory results are compared to the simulations and to measurements showing a very good agreement and validating the proposed methodology. The fabricated filter presents an elliptic response with 20% of center frequency tuning range around 3.2 GHz and a fractional BW variation from 4% to 12% with low insertion loss and high power handling with a 1-dB compression point higher than .

Complete Design and Measurement Methodology for a Tunable RF Impedance-Matching Network

This paper presents the design, fabrication, and characterization of a compact narrowband tunable impedance-matching network. A prototype was fabricated in hybrid technology using coplanar waveguide transmission lines and surface-mounted components. The network consists of a II-structure with tunable components made of varactors in series with inductors. Simulations and measurements are in good agreement. A new measurement methodology suitable for tunable impedance-matching networks is proposed. The results show that complex impedances with magnitudes varying from 6 Omega to 1 kOmega can be matched at 1 GHz and tuned in a 50% bandwidth. In addition, nonlinear measurements were done to fully characterize the network. The 1-dB compression point is reached at an input power of 20 dBm, while the input power for the third-order intermodulation intercept point is 21.3 dBm for a 1-kHz offset between the two input frequencies.

High-Q Slow-Wave Coplanar Transmission Lines on 0.35

In this letter, experimental results and trends for shielded coplanar waveguide transmission lines (S-CPW) implemented in a 0.35 μm CMOS technology are provided. Because of the introduction of floating strips below the CPW transmission line, high effective dielectric permittivity and quality factor are obtained. Three different geometries of S-CPW transmission lines are characterized. For the best geometry, the measured effective dielectric permittivity reaches 48, leading to a very high slow-wave factor and high miniaturization. In addition, measurements demonstrate a quality factor ranging from 20 to 40 between 10 and 40 GHz, demonstrating state-of-the-art results for transmission lines realized in a low-cost CMOS standard technology.

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This paper describes a new concept of substrate integrated waveguide (SIW): a slow-wave substrate integrated waveguide (SW-SIW). Compared to a conventional SIW, the proposed topology requires a double-layer substrate with a bottom layer including internal metallized via-holes connected to the bottom conductive plane. The slow-wave effect is obtained by the physical separation of electric and magnetic fields in the structure. Electromagnetic simulations show that this topology of SIW allows decreasing the longitudinal dimension by more than 40% since the phase velocity is significantly smaller than that of a classical SIW. Simultaneously, the lateral dimension of the waveguide is also reduced. By considering a double-layer technology, SW-SIWs exhibiting a cutoff frequency of 9.3 GHz were designed, fabricated, and measured. The transversal dimension and the phase velocity of the proposed SW-SIW are both reduced by 40% as compared to a classical SIW designed for the same cutoff frequency, leading to a significant surface reduction. Moreover, an original kind of taper is proposed to achieve a good return loss when the SW-SIW is fed by a microstrip transmission line.

m CMOS Process

This paper describes a new low-pass filter topology based on tapered periodic structures. These filters exhibit interesting characteristics in terms of compactness, return loss, insertion loss, selectivity, and the suppression of spurious frequency bands. Hybrid prototypes with a 1-GHz cutoff frequency, based on a coplanar-waveguide technology, and using both low-cost and high-performance substrates, have been fabricated and measured. Spurious frequency bands can be suppressed to below -22 dB at frequencies up to 20 GHz. Passband ripples are negligible, and the return loss is better than 20 dB. A two-section filter has a length of 0.2 lambda and exhibits a -120-dB/dec selectivity, while a six-section filter is 0.51 lambda long and has a -560-dB/dec selectivity. A design procedure has been established. These filters are compatible with monolithic microwave integrated circuit technologies in which the capacitors can be realized as metal-insulator-metal structures

Slow-Wave Substrate Integrated Waveguide

Two different approaches to realizing nonlinear transmission lines (NLTLs) are investigated in detail. In the first approach, the nonlinearity is continuously distributed along the line; in the second, the line is periodically loaded (PL) with discrete nonlinear elements. Measured heterostructure-barrier varactor (HBV) characteristics are used as the nonlinearities in both pulse-compression and harmonic-generation (20-60-GHz tripler) simulations. We point out that the choice of simulation step size is critical in the case of fully distributed (FD) NLTLs, and should be made sufficiently small that no numerical Bragg cutoff frequency appears. For the frequency tripler considered in this paper, simulations show that with PL (PL) NLTLs, 21% efficiency at 210-mW output power and 30% bandwidth can be obtained, whereas only 4.8% efficiency is possible using FD NLTLs. For pulse compression, we find that when properly matched, the FD NLTLs can deliver pulses that are five times sharper than can be obtained with the PL NLTLs. Measured results for an HBV-based PL NLTL frequency multiplier are reported that agree with our simulations, in particular, the 30% bandwidth. The confirmation of the role of the Bragg cutoff frequency in preventing the generation and propagation of undesired harmonics (this improving the conversion efficiency) is obtained from experimental results carried out from hybrid Schottky diodes NLTL measurements.

A compact and selective low-pass filter with reduced spurious responses, based on CPW tapered periodic structures

A complete calibration procedure for a fast sampling oscilloscope has been developed. This calibration makes it possible to use time-domain-reflected, time-domain-transmitted (TDR-TDT) systems at a quantitative level as a time-domain network analysis (TDNA) system. The data acquisition and calibration programs are implemented on a personal computer. All measurements are achieved in the time domain; the errors are corrected in the frequency domain, after Fourier transform. The bandwidth of the system extends from DC to 20 GHz. A whole calibration is achieved in a time comparable to LRL calibration on a classical network analyzer.<<ETX>>

Comparison of fully distributed and periodically loaded nonlinear transmission lines

High-performance on-chip coplanar-waveguide (CPW) transmission lines (TLs) were fabricated on locally formed porous silicon membranes on the Si wafer, and their millimeter-wave (mmW) characteristics were measured up to 110 GHz. It was demonstrated that a quality factor three times higher than that of conventional CPWs fabricated in standard CMOS on bulk crystalline Si can be obtained in mmW frequencies. The measured values of the attenuation loss were ~ 0.35 dB/mm at 60 GHz and ~ 0.55 dB/mm at 110 GHz. The obtained attenuation loss was independent of the realized TL characteristic impedance (50 and 145 Ω). These results are better than the state-of-the-art results in the literature obtained using CMOS on high-resistivity (HR) Si substrates (CMOS HR technologies). They show the potential of using locally formed porous Si membranes in mmW shielding on the Si wafer, in addition to the already demonstrated RF shielding (frequencies up to 40 GHz).