Semiconductors / Integrated Circuits

RSS

For about half a century the suppression effects of bandpass hard limiters on various combinations of signals and interference have attracted widespread interest. 1-4 Certain "rules of thumb" have accreted around a variety of theoretical results. The purpose of this article is to revisit issues of interpretation and to...

In the design of high frequency power amplifiers, one of the parameters is the stability of the active device. The stability of the active device is determined by the Rollet stability factor K. If K > 1, then the active device is unconditionally stable and the design of the...

Ultra-wideband (UWB) radio technology enables several important applications, including ground penetrating radar, imaging, location tracking and low cost, short-range communications. With the recent Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approval of rules for operation of UWB devices under Part 15, devices aimed at these, and possibly other, applications will soon be...

Frequency synthesizers are used in a variety of communications and timing systems. Phase-locked loops (PLL) have been the "workhorse" of the majority of traditional synthesizers and clock generation circuits. However, there are other types of synthesis blocks available such as direct digital synthesizers (DDS), mixers, frequency doublers and dividers...

Fabricating a high performance 2 x 16 transmit/receive (T/R) switch to feed a millimeter-wave Rotman or Lunenburg lens antenna array has in the past been a complex and space-consuming configuration. A new T/R switch assembly has been designed that features a compact, unique package containing a 2 x 16...

Radar has been used for observation of weather since the 1940s. 1 Advances in weather radar include the incorporation of Doppler capability, which allows measurement of wind velocity, and the use of multiple polarizations, which enhance rainfall estimation and provide the ability to discriminate between types of hydrometeors, such...

Due to the fast development of wireless communications, a low cost, high performance, high integration technology is needed for system on a chip (SOC) implementation. The CMOS technology provides a good solution for SOC integration. 1 Recent improvements of the standard CMOS process make it possible to implement RF...

The number of mobile users is predicted to reach 1.7 billion by the year 2010. More than 45 percent of them will use high data speed services. W-CDMA, proposed by IMT2000, has become the most practical and important system for the development of new wireless communications. Nevertheless, second generation...

Successful microwave circuit realization requires flexible circuit analysis tools that allow engineers to prototype, analyze and verify their circuits. Today, available software tools offer standard features such as frequency analysis, tuning and optimization, but are differentiated by their model libraries and special customization capabilities. This article describes the design...

A new substrate technology has been developed that addresses the dense component placement, high heat dissipation, harsh environments and high frequencies associated with high performance devices such as microwave amplifiers for base stations, broadband amplifiers designed into multi-media networks, and high power microwave power combiners with on-board terminations. The...