This paper shows a new pulse swallow programmable frequency divider with the division step size of 0.5. To realize the division step size of 0.5 by a conventional pulse swallow method, we propose a parallel dual modulus prescaler with the division ratio of P and P + 0.5. It consists of simple circuit elements and has an advantage over the conventional dual modulus prescaler with the division step size of 0.5 in high frequency operation. The proposed parallel dual modulus prescaler with the division ratio 8 and 8.5 is implemented in the 0.13-µm CMOS technology. The proposed architecture achieves 7 times higher frequency operation than the conventional one theoretically. It is verified the functions over 5 GHz.

This paper describes a millimeter-wave pulse transmitter with a 38 GHz-band Voltage Controlled Oscillator (VCO) and a 77/38 GHz-band harmonic mixer. This harmonic mixer works as both of a pulse modulator and a multiplier. This configuration of the transmitter is very simple, and can be applied to high-speed pulse modulation like Ultra Wide Band. By using the harmonic mixer, furthermore, a fluctuation of the load impedance of the 38 GHz VCO can be reduced. Compared with the conventional configuration, the required amount of isolation between the VCO and the load has been able to be reduced by more than 30 dB as a result of the experiment in a millimeter-wave band.

This paper describes the distortion characteristics of an even harmonic type direct converter (EH-DC) used in earth stations for CDMA satellite communications. Direct conversion technique is known as a method to simplify circuit topologies of microwave transceivers. In satellite communications, multi carriers which have high and nearly equal level are provided to a quadrature mixer of the EH-DC. Hence, the third-order intermodulation degrades receiving characteristics. In this paper, we show the relationship between the distortion characteristics and noise figure of the EH-DC for CDMA satellite communication systems. Furthermore, we show NPR of even harmonic quadrature mixers caused by the third-order intermodulation. Experimental results in X-band indicate that the proposed EH-DC has almost the same BER characteristics compared with a heterodyne type transceiver.