A Miniaturized Unit Cell for Ultra-Broadband Active Millimeter-Wave Frequency Multiplication

A compact broadband unit cell for the design of broadband frequency multipliers is presented. Based on design methods from moderate frequencies, a novel integrated balanced field-effect transistor architecture is introduced, pushing ultra-broadband balanced frequency multiplication into the high millimeter-wave range. The realized microwave monolithic integrated circuits (MMICs) using this topology provide second harmonic generation over several decades using only a single integrated transistor unit cell. The circuits are fabricated in a metamorphic HEMT technology for convenient integration into multifunctional MMICs and achieve relative bandwidths of 199% from 60 MHz to 80 GHz and 70.1% in D- and G-band (110-170 and 140-220 GHz).