A minaturized broad-band MMIC frequency doubler

A miniaturized broadband balanced MMIC (monolithic microwave integrated circuit) frequency double, composed of a common-gate FET and a common-source FET directly connected to each drain electrode, has been proposed and demonstrated. The doubler is designed and fabricated as a miniaturized function module using a conventional two-gate FET configuration, active trapping, and active impedance matching. The doubler design has been performed through phase error estimation, gate width optimization, and gate-source voltage optimization. The phase error estimation in a nonlinear condition has eliminated phase error compensation circuits. The fabricated chip size is only 0.5 mm*0.5 mm, which is about 1/10 the area of previously reported doublers. A conversion loss of 8-10 dB, a fundamental frequency suppression better than 17 dB, and an input return loss better than 8 dB are obtained in the output frequency range from 6 to 16 GHz. The broadband doubler as a miniaturized MMIC function module can be applicable to small-size oscillator MMICs and multifunction MMICs.>