Negative group delay characteristics can be used to improve signal-integrity performance such as equalizer for compensation of the group delay of transmission line (TL). This brief-paper newly attempts to propose a concept of the embedded Folded-Stepped Impedance Resonator (F-SIR) structure with open-stub resonator, for negative group delay and slope characteristics at high-frequency as well as low-insertion loss. The concept of the proposed TL is based on the combination of resonance and anti-resonance due to open-stub resonator in order to establish wideband negative group delay and negative slope characteristics. The proposed TL is fabricated on PCB, and then the concept is validated by measurement and simulation.

A design scheme for a high-speed differential-input limiting transimpedance amplifier (TIA) was developed. The output-stage amplifier of the TIA is investigated in detail in order to suppress undershoot and ringing in the output waveform. The amplifier also includes a peak detector for the received signal strength indicator (RSSI) output, which is used to control the optical demodulator for differential-phase-shift-keying or differential-quadrature-phase-shift-keying formats. The limiting TIA was fabricated on the basis of 1-µm emitter-width InP-based heterojunction-bipolar-transistor (HBT) IC technology. Its differential gain is 39 dB, its 3-dB bandwidth is 27 GHz, and its estimated differential transimpedance gain is 73 dBΩ. The obtained output waveform shows that the developed design scheme is effective for suppressing undershoot and ringing.

A miniaturized patch hybrid coupler with arbitrary power ratio and impedance transformation is proposed and designed by loading a pair of asymmetric cross slots on a squared patch resonator. To obtain the arbitrary power ratio and impedance transformation, the rectangular size of stepped slot ends should be well designed to be asymmetry and thus to obtain the different inductive loadings along two current paths. Theoretically, the equivalent transmission line model is first developed to understand the physical relationship between the patch and traditional branch-line hybrids. The matching/isolation and power ratio conditions are then derived at center frequency. By following a detailed design guideline, a prototype of the hybrid with 1:2 power ratio and 1:1.3 impedance transformation is designed and fabricated at 4.2 GHz. The measured results show a good agreement with simulated results, where the measured -10 dB impedance bandwidth achieves 18% and the bandwidth of 90°±6° phase difference is about 35% in a frequency range from 3.5 GHz to 5 GHz.

Wireless power transfer (WPT) based on electric coupled resonance can withstand a great level of variability in antenna separation. In this paper, we propose an independent electrical coupled resonance WPT system to further increase such systems' power transfer distance and ensure flexibility in the antenna location. The proposed system's power transfer function, critical coupling point, and resonance frequency splitting are investigated via the equivalent circuit, simulation, and experiment. Moreover, the input impedance characteristic of two electric coupled resonance antennas is also analyzed according to the transfer distance. In the region of under coupled, an appropriate impedance matching method is required to achieve effective power transfers. Here, we proposed a fixed configuration type matching loop with a series-connecting variable capacitance that can be added into both the source and load antennas. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed matching loop can convert the two electric coupled resonance antennas' input impedance to the feed port impedance very well at varying transfer distances; these results are in good agreement with the simulation results.

Realization of a planar dual-band fork three-way power divider (PDBF3PD) with Cheng's equivalent structure is discussed. The Cheng's structure consists of two open-circuited stubs and a transmission line, and the characteristic impedances tend to be high. As a result, the realizable range of frequency ratios of upper frequency to lower frequency is limited in a narrow area. In this paper, an impedance scale factor is proposed to transform characteristic impedances into a realizable range and to facilitate the design of PDBF3PDs. Theoretical considerations are verified using a simulator of ADS2008U and by an experiment.

This paper focuses on the S-parameter method that is a basic method for measuring the input impedance of balanced-fed antennas. The basic concept of the method is summarized using the two-port network, and it is shown that the method can be enhanced to the unbalanced antennas using a formulation based on incident and reflected waves. The compensation method that eliminates the influence of a measurement jig and the application of the S-parameter method for the measurement of a radiation pattern with reduced unbalanced currents are explained. Further, application of the method for measuring the reflection and coupling coefficients of multiple antennas is introduced. The measured results of the input impedance of a dipole antenna, radiation patterns of a helical antenna on a small housing, and S-parameters of multiple antennas on a small housing are examined, and the measured results obtained with the S-parameter method are verified.

A scalable low voltage signaling (SLVS) transmitter, with asymmetric impedance calibration, is proposed for mobile applications which require low power consumption. The voltage swing of the proposed SLVS transmitter is scalable from 40,mV to 440,mV. The proposed asymmetric impedance calibration asymmetrically controls the pull-up and pull-down drivers for the SLVS transmitter with an impedance of 50,$Omega$. This makes it possible to remove the additional regulator used to calibrate the impedance of an output driver by controlling the swing level of a pre-driver. It also maintains the common mode voltage at the center voltage level of the transmitted signal. The proposed SVLS transmitter is implemented using a 0.18-$mu $m 1-poly 6-metal CMOS process with a 1.2-V supply. The active area and power consumption of the transmitter are $250 imes 123 mu$ m$^{2}$ and 2.9,mW/Gb/s, respectively.

In terms of the transmission-line theory, a general synthesis of a new class of optimum Chebyshev-type ultra-wideband bandpass (UWB) filter prototype composed of multistage stepped-impedance resonators (SIRs) and two short-circuited shunt stubs positioned at input- and output- ports is presented. By the comparison of the real and theoretical transfer functions, the design/characteristic equations are obtained for the design of the proposed filter prototype rather than the traditional design tables. The explicit expressions of one-stage and two-stage filters are then derived and reported. Accordingly, bandpass filters with an arbitrary FBW (Fractional Bandwidth) and passband ripple can be easily designed by solving the design equations. As an example, a 10-degree Chebyshev distributed filter (two-stage filter) with an FBW of 110% is synthesized to meet FCC's outdoor mask. The synthesized circuit model are confirmed by a commercial circuit simulator and then optimized by an EM simulator, fabricated in microstrip line and characterized by the network analyzer. The good agreements between the measured and predicted frequency responses validate the effectiveness of newly proposed filter prototype and the corresponding synthesis technique. In addition, the designed filter exhibits good characteristics of comparatively low insertion loss, quite sharp skirt, very flat group delay and good stopband (especially in lower one) as well. It should be also highlighted that, compared with the conventional filters composed merely of parallel-coupled SIRs or shunt short-circuit-stubs, the new prototype can reduce the overall length of the filter by more than 3/4λg. Moreover, in terms of the presented design technique, the proposed filter prototype can be also used to easily realize the UWB filters with an FBW even greater than 110%.

A novel spatially modulated communication method, appropriate for wireless power transmission applications at 5.8GHz, is proposed using dual scatterers embedded with lumped elements. Analytical expression for the received wave in the spatial modulation is derived, and the characteristics are verified with simulation and measurement by varying the embedded capacitor. The maximum measured variation of the received voltage is more than 15dB and that of the phase is more than 270 degrees at 5.8GHz. The estimated amplitude modulation factor is more than 70%. Using the data obtained, we estimate the practical received waveforms modulated by the applied voltage to a varactor for the amplitude modulation scheme.

This paper presents a DC output voltage-boosting antenna with high input impedance in wide frequency band for RF (radio frequency) energy harvesting of FM broadcasting signals. Target input power level of -20dBm is used to design a loop antenna for DC output voltage-boosting. The RF energy harvesting on YNU campus provides 924mV DC output for a single rectenna and 1.72V DC output for twin rectennas by receiving several FM broadcasting wave simultaneously.

By using impedance (Z) matching circuits in a low-cost transistor outline (TO) CAN package for a 10 Gb/s transmitter, we achieve a cost-effective and small bidirectional optical subassembly (BOSA) with excellent optical transmission waveforms and a > 40% mask margin over a wide temperature range (-10 to 85). We describe a design for Z matching circuits and simulation results, and discuss the advantage of the cost-effective compensation technique.

To better understand antenna properties in a narrow space such as in a densely-packed device, a circular microstrip antenna in a narrow parallel-plate waveguide is theoretically studied. An analytical expression is derived for the input impedance in a parallel-plate waveguide by using the cavity model with surface admittance on the side wall. The surface admittance is defined by the external magnetic field due to the equivalent magnetic current at the aperture and takes into account the contribution of the parallel plates to the antenna. The magnetic field external to the antenna, that is in the parallel-plate region, is determined by using a dyadic Green's function. The input impedance is then calculated by a basic definition based on the conservation of the complex power. An analytical expression which couples the resonant frequency and the surface susceptance is also formulated. Presented expressions are validated by comparison with experimental results.

In this paper, effects of the parasite elements on an antenna impedance of a UHF RFID tag put on a high impedance surface (HIS) are experimentally studied in detail. It is shown that small parasite elements on a mushroom HIS structure can help to recover a mismatch of the impedance and this impedance recovery is brought by an in-phase frequency shift of the HIS due to a mutual coupling between the HIS and the parasite elements. The technique is applied to a commercial 953 MHz band RFID tag inlet antenna on a 53-cell HIS with the total dimension of 125751.5 mm3 and it is demonstrated that the impedance mismatch is successfully recovered and the tag operates with a reading range of 3 m even on a 2003002 mm3 aluminum plate.

This paper is a report on a high ESD breakdown-voltage InP HBT transimpedance amplifier IC for optical video distribution systems. To make ESD breakdown-voltage higher, we designed ESD protection circuits integrated in the TIA IC using base-collector/base-emitter diodes of InP HBTs and resistors. These components for ESD protection circuits have already existed in the employed InP HBT IC process, so no process modifications were needed. Furthermore, to meet requirements for use in optical video distribution systems, we studied circuit design techniques to obtain a good input-output linearity and a low-noise characteristic. Fabricated InP HBT TIA IC exhibited high human-body-model ESD breakdown voltages (±1000 V for power supply terminals, ±200 V for high-speed input/output terminals), good input-output linearity (less than 2.9-% duty-cycle-distortion), and low noise characteristic (10.7 pA/ averaged input-referred noise current density) with a -3-dB-down higher frequency of 6.9 GHz. To the best of our knowledge, this paper is the first literature describing InP ICs with high ESD-breakdown voltages.

This paper describes a method to design a predistorter (PD) for a GaN-FET power amplifier (PA) by using nonlinear parameters extracted from measured IMD which has asymmetrical peaks peculiar to a memory effect with a second-order lag. While, computationally efficient equations have been reported by C. Rey et al. for the memory effect with a first-order lag. Their equations are extended to be applicable to the memory effect with the second-order lag. The extension provides a recursive algorithm for cancellation signals of the PD each of which updating is made by using signals in only two sampling points. The algorithm is equivalent to a memory depth of two in computational efficiency. The required times for multiplications and additions are counted for the updating of all the cancellation signals and it is confirmed that the algorithm reduces computational intensity lower than half of a memory polynomial in recent papers. A computer simulation has clarified that the PD improves the adjacent channel leakage power ratio (ACLR) of OFDM signals with several hundred subcarriers corresponding to 4G mobile radio communications. It has been confirmed that a fifth-order PD is effective up to a higher power level close to 1 dB compression. The improvement of error vector magnitude (EVM) by the PD is also simulated for OFDM signals of which the subcarrier channels are modulated by 16 QAM.

We have developed two modulator driver ICs that are based on the functional distributed circuit (FDC) topology for over 40-Gb/s optical transmission systems using InP HBT technology. The FDC topology enables both a wide bandwidth amplifier and high-speed digital functions. The none-return-to-zero (NRZ) driver IC, which is integrated with a D-type flip-flop, exhibits 2.6-Vp-p (differential output: 5.2 Vp-p) output-voltage swings with a high signal quality at 43 and 50 Gb/s. The return-to-zero (RZ) driver IC, which is integrated with a NRZ to RZ converter, produces 2.4-Vp-p (differential output: 4.8 Vp-p) output-voltage swings and excellent eye openings at 43 and 50 Gb/s. Furthermore, we conducted electro-optical modulation experiments using the developed modulator driver ICs and a dual drive LiNbO3 Mach-Zehnder modulator. We were able to obtain NRZ and RZ clear optical eye openings with low jitters and sufficient extinction ratios of more than 12 dB, at 43 and 50 Gb/s. These results indicate that the FDC has the potential to achieve a large output voltage and create high-speed functional ICs for over-40-Gb/s transmission systems.

Solution-based organic field-effect transistors (OFETs) with low parasitic capacitance have been fabricated using a self-aligned method. The self-aligned processes using a cross-linking polymer gate insulator allow fabricating electrically stable polymer OFETs with small overlap area between the source-drain electrodes and the gate electrode, whose frequency characteristics have been investigated by impedance spectroscopy (IS). The IS of polymer OFETs with self-aligned electrodes reveals frequency-dependent channel formation process and the frequency response in FET structure.

To reduce laborious tasks of the phase determination, our previous paper has proposed a method to derive phase reference for two-tone intermodulation distortion (IMD) measurement of a power amplifier (PA) by using small-signal S-parameters. Since the method is applicable to low output power level, this paper proposes an iterative process to extend the applicable power level up to 1-dB compression. The iterative process is based on extraction of linear response: the principle of the extraction is described theoretically by using an accurate model of the PA with memory effect. Measurement of two-tone IMD is made for a GaN FET PA. Validity of the iteration is confirmed as convergence of the extracted linear response to that given by the product of S21 and input signal. Measured results also show validity of the physical model of the memory effect provided by Vuolevi et al. because beat frequency dependences of IMD's are accurately fitted by bias impedances at even order harmonics of envelope frequency. The PA is characterized by using measured results and the third and fifth order inverses of the PA are designed. Improvement of IMD is theoretically confirmed by using the inverses as predistorters.

On the huge-scale array antenna for SSPS (space solar power systems), the problem of faulty elements and effect of mutual coupling between array elements should be considered in practice. In this paper, the effect of faulty elements as well as mutual coupling on the performance of the huge-scale array antenna are analyzed by using the proposed IEM/LAC. The result shows that effect of faulty elements and mutual coupling on the actual gain of the huge-scale array antenna are significant.

This paper presents novel structures of band-pass filters using two configurations of open loop ring resonators (OPLRR): a resonator with embedded quadruply-stepped impedance transmission lines (QSITL) in coupled lines, and a stepped impedance resonator (SIR). Both types of OPLRR have the capability of suppressing the second spurious response and shifting the third spurious response to a higher frequency as well. To demonstrate the performances of both proposed resonators, two sections of each structure with cascaded and crossed configurations at an operating frequency of 0.9 GHz are presented. Both methodologies are easy to design and implement. The methodology with a SIR has a better performance than the SITL. The measurement results of the proposed circuits are in full agreement with the simulated prediction results.