Fabricating MMICs can be high cost and high risk. Because you cannot know if MMICs were fabricated to spec until the fabrication process is completed, cost can easily rise. Design is key to ensuring correct fabrication, minimizing costs, and reducing refabrication. This practical volume is filled with hands-on design techniques and rules of thumb you can use everyday to fabricate MMICs to system specification. More than 100 photos of real MMIC designs let you see how these design techniques were successfully implemented. You get in-depth information on designing amplifiers, power amplifiers, and millimeter-wave circuits. The book guides you in selecting the right type of foundry and technology - Si/GaAs or MEMT/HBT - for a specific design. It provides you with real-world insight into component modeling, circuit simulation and layout, and processing and testing. This invaluable resource gives you a unique look into day-to-day foundry practices and the economics associated with fabricating MMICs.
Introduction- The History of MMICs. The MMIC Advantage. Component Technology and Foundry Choice-Active Components. Substrate Material. Transistor Types. Passive Components. Foundry Use and Economics-MMIC Production Costs. Simulation and Component Models-Passive and Active Component Models. Impedance Matching and the Smith Chart. Passive Element DesignStubs, Couplers, Baluns, Filters, Antennas. Amplifier Design-Initial Considerations. Chip-to-System Interface. DC Connections. Gain and Stability. Small Signal Amplifier Design-Low Noise Amplifiers. Distributed Amplifiers. Cascode Distributed Amplifiers. Low Power Consuming Amplifiers. Power Amplifier Design-Large Signal Effects on Active Devices. Power Amplifier Design Methodology. Architecture Design. Power budget. Large Signal Optimization. Thermal Considerations. Oscillator DesignResonators. Negative Resistance Circuits.VCO and DRO. Mixer Design-Single-Ended, Balanced, Sub-harmonic, Double-Balanced, Image-Reject Mixers. Active Baluns. Switch Design-Phase shifters. Switched-Path Attenuators. Circuits with Digital ApplicationPrescalers. Log Amps. Darlington Amps. Millimeter-Wave Circuits-High Frequency Effects. Component Choice. Microstrip versus CPW Transmission Lines. Simulation Issues. Yield Improvement Techniques-Circuit Design for Process Tolerance. Process Design for Product Yield. Sensitivity and Tolerance Analysis. Layout-Layout Files. The Circuit Layout Process. Layout Checking. Chip Arraying. Processing Technology-Substrate Material Growth. Wafer Production. Surface Layers. Photolithography. Wafer Thinning. Through-Substrate Vias. Chip Separation. Quality Assurance. Test-Process Control & Monitoring. DC Test and Stability Problems. RF Test and Calibration.
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Steve Marsh
Steve Marsh is the CEO of MIDAS Consulting, Northampton, Northamptonshire, U.K. A senior member of the IEEE, he is associate editor of Transactions of the IEEE Microwave Theory and Techniques Society. He holds a Ph.D. in physics from the University of Bath.