Minimizing the Side Lobe Level (SLL) and attain highest achievable Beam Collection Efficiency (BCE) is a critical goal for Solar Power Station/Satellite (SPS). If all antennas are uniformly excited then the main beam will carry only a part of the total energy due to the higher SLL. SLL is decreased and BCE is increased by adopting edge tapering for SPS. But edge tapering is a complex technical problem for SPS. So an optimization is needed between uniform amplitude distribution and edge tapering system. We have derived a new method of edge tapering called Isosceles Trapezoidal Distribution (ITD) edge tapering. Only a small number of antennas from each side of the phased array antenna are tapered in this method. ITD edge tapering is almost uniform so it is technically better. We have compared different amplitude distribution systems; uniform, Gaussian, Dolph-Chebyshev and the newly derived ITD method. The SLL reduction in ITD is even lower than those of other kinds of edge tapering. Therefore the amount of losing power in the SLL in ITD is lower. As a result the interference level becomes lower and BCE becomes higher in this method. The higher BCE and better SLL performance than those with uniform distribution can be achieved in ITD with phase error and under unit failed condition.

We report on a subsystem of electromagnetic wave radiation and propagation estimation using high-Tc superconducting (HTS) receiving filters for S band. The subsystem, comprised of HTS filters, a rubidium standard signal generator (Rb SSG), a global positioning system (GPS) unit, etc., was used to evaluate the electromagnetic-wave (EMW) intensities, frequencies, the frequency interferences and the ground positions where the EM are measured. The developed subsystem showed high frequency selectivity for S band by using the HTS filters. Furthermore, we verified that the subsystem with the HTS filters operated on the moving car.

A microwave photonic mixer utilizing an InGaAs photoconductor for radio over fiber applications is proposed and fabricated. Static and dynamic characteristics of the fabricated microwave photonic mixer were investigated. The microwave photonic mixer showed an optical bandwidth of approximately 300 MHz and a uniform conversion loss characteristic for the electrical input frequency up to 20 GHz.

Optically controlled beam forming techniques are effective for phased-array antenna control. We have developed the Fourier transform optical beamformer (FT-OBF). The antenna radiation pattern inputted into an amplitude spatial light modulator (A-SLM) is optically Fourier transformed to a specific phase-front light beam equivalent to an antenna excitation in the FT-OBF. Optical signal processing, used the Fourier transform optics, is effective to large-scale, two-dimensional, and high-speed signal processing. To implement a flexible and finer antenna beam pattern control, we use an A-SLM as input image formation of the FT optics. And, to realize a small-size FT-OBF, we use symmetric triplet lenses with convex, concave and convex lens. The total optical system becomes below 1/5 length compared with the length using single lens. Finally, we evaluated the developed FT-OBF with the generated amplitude and phase distributions, which excitation signal of an array antenna. We measured an antenna radiation beam pattern, beam steering and beam width control, in the C-band. Measurement results agreed with theoretical calculated results. These results show the feasibility of the spatial light modulator based FT-OBF.

An InGaP/GaAs HBT MMIC amplifier with an active balun has been developed for ultra-wideband radio systems (UWB). The MMIC was designed to drive a self-complementary antenna with a balanced mode, where an input impedance is 60π ohms. The MMIC consists of a common mode negative feed back ultra-wideband amplifier circuit, an active balun circuit, and a high impedance drive circuit. The developed amplifier provides a 3-dB gain roll-off bandwidth from 2.4 GHz to 10.8 GHz with a 14.1-dB linear power gain, and a linear power output up to 3 dBm. The developed amplifier with the active balun provides a 3-dB gain roll-off bandwidth from 2.3 GHz to 8.6 GHz with a 21.3-dB power gain in a balanced mode, and a linear power output up to 0.6 dBm. The measured total group delay is less than 32 psec. Output signals at the balanced output terminals of the MMIC were kept inverted with a steep pulse shape for an impulse input signal of 57-psec pulse width.

This paper presents an advanced and extensive utilization approach of microwave resonant fields, and the applications to push-push oscillators and reconfigurable planar antennas. The excellent coherency, synchronous harmonics and the degenerative orthogonal modes of electromagnetic field built up on microwave resonators are noticeable features in this approach. Another crucial point is the resonant field controllability that is especially essential feature for reconfigurable antennas in this paper. All the features can be realized by embedding semiconductor devices and/or IC's on a microwave resonator. Push-push oscillators and reconfigurable planar antennas are described as good examples of this approach. The push-push oscillators can generate very higher frequency signals due to the selective use of the 4th harmonic up to the 8th harmonic resonant fields, suppressing undesired harmonic signals. As a result, very high frequency band oscillators up to millimeter-wave bands with good suppression of undesired harmonic signals can be easily realized at very low cost by use of commercially available active devices for low frequency bands. The reconfigurable planar antennas are also demonstrated, where the boundary condition of the resonant field on planar antennas can be purposefully controlled to realize reconfigurable antenna performances by the semiconductor devices embedded on the patch as well. The orthogonal linear polarization controllable patch, the dual-band switching patch and the continuously frequency controllable patch have been demonstrated as the successful applications of this approach.

An even harmonic quadrature mixer (EH-QMIX) with a balanced configuration is proposed for a direct conversion receiver. The unit even harmonic mixer (EHMIX) used for I/Q paths consists of two anti parallel diode pairs (APDPs) and a pair of diplexers. When the second harmonic of LO (2LO) from the LO section is applied to the LO port as a spurious component, a conventional single-ended EHMIX using APDP converts the 2LO leakage from the LO section into the baseband and the d.c. offset and the self-detected LO noise arise at the baseband degrade the sensitivity. This proposed balanced EHMIX configuration can cancel out the 2LO leakage in itself. Therefore, the d.c. offset and the LO noise are significantly suppressed and the degradation of the sensitivity can be avoided. The suppression characteristic of the d.c. offset and the LO noise are verified by the simulation and the measurements. By using this balanced configuration, the fabricated EH-QMIX achieves wider frequency band characteristic than that of the single-ended EH-QMIX, and it shows 20% relative bandwidth at L-band.

This paper presents the design, fabrication and characterization of a low actuation voltage capacitive shunt RF-MEMS switch for microwave and millimeter-wave applications based on a corrugated electrostatic actuated bridge suspended over a concave structure of coplanar waveguide (CPW), with sputtered nickel as the structural material for the bridge and gold for CPW line, fabricated on high-resistivity silicon (HRS) substrate using IC compatible processes for modular integration in a communication devices. The residual stress is very low because having both ends corrugated structure of the bridge in concave structure. The residual stress is calculated about 3-15 MPa in corrugated bridge and 30 MPa in flat bridge. The corrugated bridge of the concave structure requires lower actuation voltages 20-80 V than 50-100 V of the flat bridge of the planar structure in 0.3 to 1.0 µm thick Ni capacitive shunt RF-MEMS switch, in insertion loss 1.0 dB, return loss 12 dB, power loss 10 dB and isolation 28 dB from 0.5 up to 40 GHz. The residual stress of the bridge material and structure is critical to lower the actuation voltage.

The first realization of a class-F InGaP/GaAs HBT amplifier considering up to 7th-order higher harmonic frequencies, operating at 1.9-GHz band, is described. A total number of open-circuited stubs for higher harmonic frequency treatment is successfully reduced without changing a class-F load circuit condition, using a low-cost and low-loss resin (tan δ=0.0023) circuit board. In class-F amplifier design at microwave frequency ranges, not only increasing treated orders of higher harmonic frequencies for a class-F load circuit, but also decreasing parasitic capacitances of a transistor is important. Influence of a base-collector capacitance, Cbc, for power added efficiency, PAE, and collector efficiency, ηc, was investigated by using a two-dimensional device simulator and a harmonic balance simulator. Measured maximum PAE and ηc reached 74.2% and 76.6%, respectively, using a fabricated class-F InGaP/GaAs HBT amplifier with collector doping density of 21016 cm-3. In case circuit losses were de-embedded for the experimental results, PAE and ηc were estimated as 78.7% and 81.2%, respectively. These are very close to obtainable maximum PAE for the use of the InGaP/GaAs HBT.

In this paper we review our recent work developing the growth of AlGaN/GaN high-electron mobility transistors (HEMTs) grown on SiC (0001) by plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy (PA-MBE). State-of-the-art AlGaN/GaN HEMTs have been achieved using MBE-grown material. Buffer leakage was an important limiting factor for early devices. We have shown that by appropriately controlling the Al/N flux ratio during growth of the nucleation layer on SiC(0001), low-leakage GaN buffers can be subsequently grown. In addition, a "modulated growth" technique was developed to achieve large area uniformity and surface morphology control. High-performance HEMTs were fabricated utilizing these two techniques. On 200 nm gate-length devices, at 4 GHz an output power density of 8.4 W/mm was obtained with a power-added efficiency (PAE) of 67% at a drain bias of 30 V. At a higher drain bias (42 V), 13.7 W/mm with a PAE of 55% was achieved.

A novel dual band transmitter module for 2.4 GHz and 5.8 GHz wireless LAN applications with adaptive digital predistortion linearization is presented. The module operates either as a power amplifier for 2.4 GHz or frequency doubler for 5.8 GHz band. Amplification gain is 12.9 dB at 2.4 GHz and multiplication gain is 3.3 dB at 5.8 GHz. At 2.4 GHz band, the second harmonic is about 36.5 dB lower than the fundamental, and the 2.9 GHz fundamental signal is 20.3 dB lower than the second harmonic output at 5.8 GHz operation. An adaptive digital predistortion scheme is proposed to linearize the 2.4 GHz amplifier, and to get the proper 5.8 GHz band wireless LAN signal. The 2.4 GHz amplifier with predistortion satisfies the ACPR mask requirement for the input 1 dB compression power of 5 dBm and the linearized frequency doubler shows 26 dB ACPR improvement at 11 MHz offset from center frequency by using the proposed predistortion linearization. The frequency doubler output spectrum with predistortion does meet the IEEE standard Tx mask.

Accumulation of non-equilibrium longitudinal optical (LO) phonons (termed hot phonons) is considered as a possible cause for limitation of frequency of operation of GaN-based high-electron-mobility transistors (HEMTs). The experimental data on noise temperature of hot electrons at a microwave frequency as a function of supplied electric power is used to extract information on hot phonons: the hot-phonon lifetime, the equivalent hot-phonon temperature, the effective occupancy of hot-phonon states involved into electron-LO-phonon interaction. The possible ways for controlling the hot-phonon effect on electron drift velocity through variation of electron density, channel composition, and hot-phonon lifetime are discussed. The expected dependence of hot-electron drift velocity on hot-phonon lifetime is confirmed experimentally. A self-consistent explanation of different frequency behaviour of InP-based and GaN-based HEMTs is obtained from a comparative study of hot-phonon effects.

A simple self-biased receiver system with a dual branch architecture consisting of a low-power consumption receiver and a rectenna is introduced. The system is efficiently integrated with a dual-fed circular sector antenna with harmonic rejection characteristics without a BPF. The receiver portion is designed by utilizing a low-noise amplifier (LNA) with low power consumption and a self-heterodyne mixer, while the rectenna achieves high conversion efficiency up to 80%, thanks to the harmonic rejection of the circular sector antenna. The rectified DC power from the rectenna is applied for a bias of the receiver without any external bias. Simultaneously, an ASK digital signal demodulation without an extra power supply are implemented successfully.

A system was developed to measure the microwave power dependence of the surface resistance superconductor films. The system uses a dielectric resonator method combined with a circle fit technique and a two-mode technique to measure the microwave surface resistance of superconductor films. For validation, this system was used to measure such surface resistance for superconductor films with different surface morphologies. Significant difference in microwave power dependence of surface resistance was observed. This measurement system proved suitable for evaluating superconducting films for passive microwave devices, including high power devices such as transmitting filters.

In this letter, the validity of lumped element class-F amplifier circuit design approaches, which were previously proposed by the same authors, has been demonstrated experimentally using microwave InGaP/GaAs HBT. By means of the proposed class-F amplifier design method, more than 4th order higher harmonic frequencies can be taken into account in class-F microwave amplifier design using only lumped element components. In this approach, miniaturization of class-F amplifier circuit has also been realized. A collector efficiency of 71.2% and a power-added efficiency of 69.2% have been measured at an operating fundamental frequency of 1 GHz considering up to the 4th order higher harmonic frequency.

Surface wave distribution over electromagnetic bandgap (EBG) plate is measured and suppression of surface wave propagation over the EBG is investigated. We used a micro current probe that detects H-field strength of the propagating transverse magnetic (TM) microwave up to 6 GHz. By scanning with the probe over the EBG, we visualized surface wave distribution at various frequencies. This visualized map shows that the EBG plate suppresses the surface wave propagation within the bandgap frequency. We utilized this effect for the antenna reflective shield. By combining the EBG with a microstrip patch antenna, this EBG works as a reflective shield and the front-to-backward radiation ratio of antenna is increased. In this experiment, we fabricated three types of shield board; mushroom type of EBG that has hexagonal textured patches connected with via-holes, textured surface without via-holes, and plane metal. By comparing the surface wave distributions and beam patterns of antenna with various shields, we found that the visualized map of TM surface wave gives us direct and intuitive information and helpful tips in designing the EBG reflective shield for patch antenna.

Since WLAN (wireless LAN) systems share the 2.4-GHz frequency band with microwave ovens, interference caused by radiated oven noise is a serious problem in practical WLAN application. To mitigate the oven noise interference in DS-SS (direct-sequence spread spectrum) WLAN systems, the use of adaptive filters is proposed. This method is based on the fact that oven noise behaves like CW (continuous wave) interference within a short duration. In contrast to previous reduction techniques for oven noise, this method can be implemented without changing any specifications of current WLAN systems. The results of numerical and experimental analyses clearly demonstrate the effectiveness of adaptive filters for improving the bit error rates of WLAN links subject to oven noise interference.

An ultra-small (0.3-mm0.3-mm0.06-mm) radio frequency identification chip called the µ-chip has been developed for use in a wide range of individual recognition applications. The chip is designed to be thin enough to be applied to paper and paper-like media that are widely used in retailing to create certificates with monetary value, as well as to token-type devices. The µ-chip has been designed and fabricated using 0.18-µm standard CMOS technology. This ultra-small RFID chip also has a low-cost oriented device structure of a double-surface electrode to simplify the process of connecting the antenna and chip. The measured characteristics of the prototype chip are presented, demonstrating the capability of the new chip as an RFID device.

A novel millimeter wave quadruple-push oscillator is presented in this paper. The quadruple-push oscillator consists of four identical sub-circuits and a ring resonator that is used as a common resonator. It is well known that there are two orthogonal resonant modes on a one-wavelength ring resonator. According to this resonant characteristic, two orthogonal push-push oscillations can be set up in the quadruple-push oscillator, and there is a phase difference of 90among four sub-circuits due to nonlinear performance. Therefore, the four identical sub-circuits can oscillate at the same fundamental frequency f0, and the fundamental oscillating signal of one sub-circuit has phase differences of 90, 180and 270to that of the others, and the desired fourth harmonic signals can be combined due to their in phase relations, and the undesired fundamental signals, the second harmonic signals, the third harmonic signals and so on can be suppressed when the oscillating signals of the four sub-circuits are added in phase. The principle is firstly explained in this paper, and is proved in the experiment of a Ka-band quadruple-push oscillator. The measured output power of the desired fourth harmonic signal (4f0) was +1.67 dBm at the frequency of 35.8 GHz. The measured suppression of the undesired signals of the fundamental signal (f0), the second harmonic signal (2f0), the third harmonic signal (3f0) and the fifth harmonic signal (5f0) were -18.0 dBc, -17.9 dBc, -17.8 dBc and -35.5 dBc, respectively. The measured phase noise performances at 35.8 GHz were -104.0 dBc/Hz and -82.3 dBc/Hz at the offset frequency of 1 MHz and 100 kHz, respectively.

Beam control using active antenna arrays with self-oscillating harmonic mixers has been investigated. The active antenna is composed of a patch antenna receiving RF signal and a parallel feedback type oscillator which operates as the self-oscillating harmonic mixer, and down-converts the received RF signal into IF signal. The mixer has two ports for local oscillating (LO) signal. One is an output port extracting the LO signal. The other is an input port for an injection signal to synchronize the local oscillation. The mixers can be coupled unilaterally without other nonreciprocal components by connecting the output port to the input port in the next mixer. In the unilaterally coupled array, the phase differences of the LO signals between the adjacent mixers can be varied without phase shifters in injection locking state by changing the local free-running frequencies of the self-oscillating mixers. The receiving pattern can be controlled by combining the IF signals from the individual active antennas, which have phases associated with the LO signals. The IF is difference between the RF and double of the LO frequency so that arbitrary phase differences from 0 to 2π radian can be provided to the output IF signals. The experiments using the two- and three-element arrays demonstrated beam control capability.