Design and Realization of Electrostatic Discharge Protected DC to 2GHz GaAs Monolithic Microwave Integrated Circuits SP4T Switch for TDMA Communication Applications

Abstract

This paper discusses the small signal simulated and measured results of a DC to 2GHz monolithic GaAs SP4T switch which has been designed and realized. The measured 1 dB compression point of SP4T switch at different frequency range has also been presented. The DC to 2GHz switch has been designed using series-shunt FETs topology. This topology has worked over very large bandwidth. In this topology series MESFETs allows the SP4T switch to operate down to DC. The SP4T switch has been achieved better than 1.1dB of insertion loss, better than 32 dB of input to “Off” port isolation and better than 16 dB of the input and output return loss @2GHz. The performance of the SP4T switch has been measured on an FR4 PCB eval board. The on-chip higher value of ballast resistor has been used for ESD protection. The switch has designed using 0.7 μm Ion-Implanted recessed gates MESFET technology and used in switching matrices for TDMA communication system. The major advantages of the solid-state integrated switch are low power consumption, small size and lightweight. These fea tures of solid state switch are more attractive for com munication applications. The chip dimension is 1.2 × 1.2 mm.

Keywords:

• MESFET
• Series-Shunt topology and Monolithic microwave integrated circuits
• SP4T and switch

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Shib Shankar Singh

Shib Shankar Singh received his Electronics Engineering degree from The Institution of Electronics and Telecommunication Engineers, Delhi, India. He completed M.Tech in Microwave Electronics from the Delhi University South Campus, Delhi, India, in 2001. In 2001, he joined Gallium Arsenide Enabling Technology Center (GAETEC), Hyderabad, India. Currently a Senior MMIC Design Engineer at GAETEC, he is engaged in the design of GaAs Monolithic Microwave Integrated Circuits. He has authored over ten publications at conferences. His work interest is high frequency designing of MMICs such as LNA, Power Amplifier, Solid State Switches, Digital Controlled Phase Shifter, Digital Controlled Attenuator, Voltage Variable Attenuator, Voltage Variable Phase Shifter etc. E-mail: [email protected]