A 15-50 GHz-band GaAs MMIC variable attenuator has been developed for microwave and millimeter-wave wireless communications systems. The attenuator employs a balanced distributed configuration using shunt connected HEMT's in order to realize a broadband operation, a low insertion loss and a good impedance matching with simple control bias scheme. The MMIC was fabricated with a pseudomorphic HEMT device technology. It has exhibited an insertion loss as low as 1.6 dB with an attenuation control range as wide as 21 dB at 26 GHz. It has also shown a good linearity of an input power of more than 12 dBm at 1-dB compression point and that of 26.3 dBm at a 3rd-order intercept point.

A direct conversion transmitter IC including a proposed frequency doubler, a quadrature modulator, and a 3-bit variable attenuator was fabricated using BiCMOS technology with fT of 12 GHz. This architecture employing frequency doubler is intended for realizing wireless terminals that are low in cost and small in size. The architecture is effective for reducing serious interference between PA and VCO by making the VCO frequency different from that of PA. The proposed frequency doubler comprises a current-driven 90 phase-shifter and an ECL-EXOR circuit for both low power operation and wide input power range of local oscillator (LO). The proposed frequency doubler keeps high output power even when rectangular wave from LO is applied owing to use of the current-driven 90 phase-shifter instead of a voltage-driven 90 phase-shifter. An LO leakage of less than -25 dBc, an image rejection ratio in excess of 45 dBc, and a maximum attenuation of 21 dB were measured. The transmitter IC successfully operates at LO power above -15 dBm and consumes 68 mA from 2.7 V power supply voltage. An active die size is 1.5 mm3 mm.