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The building blocks of a 0.5-V receiver, including a receiver front-end and a low-pass filter (LPF), are fabricated using 0.18-[micro]m CMOS technology. At 5.6 GHz, the receiver front-end achieves a voltage gain of 17.1 dB and a noise figure of 8.7 dB, while dissipating at 19.4 mW. The fifth-order low-pass Chebyshev filter achieves a corner frequency of 2.6 MHz and an input-referred noise of 28.5 nV/sqrt (Hz) at 6.8 mW. The receiver front-end is further integrated with the LPFs to form a highly integrated receiver subsystem at ultra-low voltage. Index Terms--CMOS, direct conversion, front-end, local oscillator (LO) self-mixing, quadrature coupler (QC), receivers, subharmonic mixers, transformers.

A wideband 77-GHz front-end receiver for passive imaging has been designed and characterized. This system comprises a fully differential low-noise amplifier (LNA), double-balanced mixer, and voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO). The 77-GHz LNA achieves 4.9-6.0-dB noise figure (NF), 18-26-dB gain, and S11 and S22 of -13.0 and -12.8 dB, respectively. The double-balanced mixer achieves 12-14-dB NF, 20-26-dB conversion gain, and -26-dBm P1dB (input referred). The VCO achieves output power from -2 to 0 dBm with phase noise of ~ -93 dBc/Hz at 72 GHz, and can be tuned by approximately 3 GHz. The NF can be substantially improved with the addition of image-reject Chebyshev bandpass filters at the interface between the LNA and mixer. The 77-GHz receiver achieves 40-46-dB max conversion gain, output-referred P1dB of 2 dBm, and power dissipation of 195 mW. A 90-GHz LNA has also been characterized as an integral part of a higher resolution 94-GHz imager. This LNA achieves 22-dB maximum gain, 7.0-dB NF, and -25- and -10-dB S11 and S22, respectively, at 90 GHz. This LNA also exhibits excellent ultra-wideband performance, achieving [greater than or equal to] 10-dB gain from 40 to 100 GHz. Index Terms--Concealed weapons detection, low-noise amplifier (LNA), millimeter wave, mixer, 94 GHz, passive imaging, 77 GHz, SiGe, ultra-wideband, voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO).

This paper deals with the development of a microwave noise-adding radiometer, which is purposely designed for the fire detection in forest environments. The sensor operates at 12.65 GHz and exploits commercial Satellite Television (SAT-TV) components such as a parabolic dish and a low-noise block. First, a simple system model is presented to estimate the radiometric contrast due to the presence of fire (increase in the antenna noise temperature with respect to the background) at a certain distance from the receiving antenna. Then, the design of the sensor is addressed, underlining the key technologies that allow the required performance to be attained at low industrial costs. An experimental characterization of the developed radiometer is reported focusing on both accuracy and sensitivity issues. Due to a continuous gain calibration based on the noise-adding procedure, the antenna noise temperature can be retrieved with an absolute error of 4 K without any thermal stabilization of the instrument electronics. Last, real fire detection experiments have been carried out both in laboratory and open-space environments. A radiometric contrast of 8.8 K has been recorded for a wooden fire of 0.2 [m.sup.2] placed at a distance of about 30 m from the antenna. Index Terms--Calibration, fire detection, microwave radiometry, microwave receivers, remote sensing.

A novel modified resistive feedback structure for designing wideband low-noise amplifiers (LNAs) is proposed and demonstrated in this paper. Techniques including feedback through a source follower, an R-C feedback network, a gate peaking inductor inside the feedback loop, and neutralization capacitors are used. Bond-wire inductors and electrostatic devices (ESDs) are co-designed to improve the chip performance. Two LNAs, LNAI and LNA2, were fabricated using a TSMC digital 90-nm CMOS technology. Both chips were tested on board using chip-on-board packages with ESD diodes added at the inputs and outputs. LNA1 achieves a 3-dB bandwidth of 9 GHz with 10 dB of power gain and a minimum noise figure (NF) of 4.2 dB. LNA2 achieves a 3-dB bandwidth of 3.2 GHz with 15.5 dB of power gain and a minimum NF of 1.76 dB. The two LNAs have third-order intermodulation intercept points of -8 and -9 dBm. Their power consumptions are 20 and 25 mW with a 1.2-V supply, respectively. Index Terms--CMOS, electrostatic devices (ESDs), low-noise amplifier (LNA), multiband receiver, resistive feedback, ultra-wideband (UWB).

The five- or six-port circuit uses one or two additional outputs in comparison with classical homodyne demodulators. This paper demonstrates that the five- or six-port technique can take advantage of this particularity. The geometrical approach allows us to represent the 3-D aspect of the five-port technique. This study in space demonstrates the natural rejection of the even-order signal at the output of the direct receiver five-port circuit. Another benefit of this geometrical approach is a new blind calibration method. Many calibration methods have been proposed for the five-port circuit used as a homodyne receiver. Most of these methods were hard to be embedded and updated. This paper presents a new blind calibration method without any constraint on the system or the signal and with less algorithm computation cost. Index Terms--Calibration, five-port, homodyne architecture, RF receivers, six-port, zero IF.

In this paper, a receiver front-end module operating at 5 GHz and suitable for low-voltage operation is presented. The design consists of a single amplifying transistor low-noise amplifier topology that utilizes multiple magnetic feedback in order to simultaneously achieve high gain and high reverse isolation. In addition, a mixer topology for optimum performance regarding gain, noise, and linearity under low-voltage operation is presented. The design has been fabricated in IBM's 0.13-[micro]m CMOS technology, and the measured performance indicates a receiver conversion gain of 22.3 dB, a noise figure of 2.64 dB, and a third-order input intercept point of +0.1 dBm. Index Terms--CMOS analog circuits, linearization techniques, low-noise amplifier (LNA), mixer design, receiver topology.

Large ground-based radio telescopes are increasingly being equipped with multibeam feed systems to enable simultaneous observation of a larger part of the sky. The aim of the One Centimetre Receiver Array-f project, part of the European Commission funded FARADAY Programme, was to develop a high-quality science instrument to survey the sky at 1-cm wavelength, while developing technologies that would be applicable to future development of systems with 100 beams or more. A complete ten-beam Ka-band radiometer system is described, together with measured results at cryogenic temperatures. Performance compares well with that obtained with similar (non monolithic microwave integrated circuit) instruments produced for the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe and Planck satellites. Index Terms--Cryogenic, InP, Ka-band, monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC), radio astronomy, radiometry.

We report on a 275-425-GHz tunerless waveguide receiver with a 3.5-8-GHz IF. As the mixing element, we employ a high-current-density Nb-AIN-Nb superconducting--insulating--superconducting (SIS) tunnel junction. Thanks to the combined use of AIN-barrier SIS technology and a broad bandwidth waveguide to thin-film microstrip transition, we are able to achieve an unprecedented 43% instantaneous bandwidth, limited by the receiver's corrugated feedhorn. The measured double-sideband (DSB) receiver noise temperature, uncorrected for optics loss, ranges from 55 K at 275 GHz, 48 K at 345 GHz, to 72 K at 425 GHz. In this frequency range, the mixer has a DSB conversion loss of 2.3 [+ or -] 1 dB. The intrinsic mixer noise is found to vary between 17-19 K, of which 9 K is attributed to shot noise associated with leakage current below the gap. To improve reliability, the IF circuit and bias injection are entirely planar by design. The instrument was successfully installed at the Caltech Submillimeter Observatory (CSO), Mauna Kea, HI, in October 2006. Index Terms--Allan variance, AIN tunnel barrier, broadband waveguide transition, dc break, heterodyne receiver, high current density, IF match, multiple Andreev reflection (MAR), planar bandpass filter, shot noise, superconducting-insulator-superconducting (SIS) mixer, system stability.

A fully integrated solution for rejecting the interference caused by Wireless Local Area Network transmissions in the 4.9-5.825-GHz band for ultra-wide-band (UWB) receivers is presented. Front-end prototypes implemented in a low cost 0.35-[micro]m SiGe BiCMOS technology are used as a test vehicle to assess the effectiveness of the presented approach. The proposed blocker filtering technique mitigates the gain desensitization, third-order intermodulation distortion and second-order intermodulation distortion by as much as 9.8, 7.9, and 6 dB, respectively. At a power consumption of only 49.2 mW, the receiver conversion gain ranges from 22-19 dB while the double side-band NF measured at the PCB connectors ranges from 5.5-8 dB in the 3.6-7.4-GHz frequency range. Index Terms--BiCMOS integrated circuits, interference suppression, microwave receivers, notch filters, ultra-wide-band (UWB) systems.

In this paper, a novel integrated receiver front-end at 5.8 GHz using a high-order subharmonic balanced self-oscillating mixer (SOM) with a high conversion gain of 11.1 dB is presented, to the authors' knowledge, for the first time. SOMs are excellent choices for a low-cost receiver design as both the oscillating source and the mixer are combined in one single device. Moreover, the presented structure is of high interest for high-end millimeter-wave systems, as subharmonic operation reduces local oscillator (LO) frequency requirements. The balanced concept of the shown circuit offers inherent RF-LO isolation, lower AM noise, and easy suppression of harmonics. In this paper, the design and performance results of the complete receiver structure are presented both with simulation and measured results and a circuit design model is also developed. Index Terms--Balanced structure, harmonics, millimeter wave, oscillator, receiver, sell-oscillating mixer (SOM).

A near-field phasor beam measurement system is developed for the characterization of heterodyne receiver optics at submillimeter-wave frequencies. The system synthesizes a pair of submillimeter-wave signals as the RF and local oscillator (LO) sources from common reference sources. The synthesized harmonic numbers of the RF and LO sources are arranged with difference by one, which makes this a new configuration with a unitary harmonic diffrence. The coherent RF and LO signal are down-converted by the receiver under test, then mixed with the microwave-frequency common reference signal to generate the second-order IF signal around 100 MHz for amplitude and phase comparison. The amplitude and phase fluctuation of the measurement system at 683 GHz is within [+ or -] 0.2 dB and [+ or -] 4[degrees] in a 1-h period, respectively. The system dynamic range at 683 and 250 GHz can be as high as 43 and 47 dB, respectively. The system is then used to measure the receiver beam patterns at 683 and 250 GHz with different RF transmitting probe antennas. Index Terms--Frequency conversion, Gaussian beams, phase measurement, submillimeter-wave receivers.

In this paper, a computationally efficient model of a broad band microwave rectenna is presented. A rectenna is a microwave power receiver: it includes a rectifying circuit and an antenna. In this paper, the combination of a 3-D edge finite-element method with a Pade rational approximation procedure allows a fast characterization of the antenna over the wide frequency band. Then an equivalent circuit of the whole device including distributed parts and lumped nonlinear components is easily obtained. A global circuit time domain simulation of the rectenna with PSPICE is thus available. Index Terms--Coupled field-circuit simulation, finite-element method, microwave rectenna, Pade approximation.

Motivated by practical considerations in the design of low-complexity receiver structures for wideband cellular code division multiple access, millimeter wave, and ultrawideband communications, the study on the generalized selection combining (GSC) receiver that adaptively combines a subset of M 'strongest' paths out of L available paths has intensified over the past few years. This paper derives concise analytical expressions for the moment generating function (MGF) of the GSC(M, L) output signal-to-noise ratio when the fading statistics are independent and identically distributed. The novelty of this mathematical framework in computing the MGF relies on the fact that it allows all common multipath fading channel models (Rayleigh, Rician, Nakagami-m, and Nakagami-q) to be treated in a unified sense. It also leads to a much more computationally efficient formula than those available in the literature and is valid for any combinations of M and L values. Using these newly derived MGFs, a unified error probability analysis for many coherent and noncoherent digital-modulation/detection schemes in a myriad of fading environments was provided. Index Terms--Coherent receiver, digital communications, diversity methods, quadratic receiver, reduced complexity receiver structures.

A compact means to separate microwave and millimeter-wave optical signals by RF frequency in real time is demonstrated. The approach is to employ an integrated optical Bragg grating Fabry-Perot (BGFP) device to spatially separate optically modulated microwave signals with high resolution. The compactness is achieved through the use of an integrated optical hybrid diffractive lens beam expander to provide the required optical wavefront to the BGFP. A proof-of-principle measurement was performed from 1 to 23 GHz with peak finesse of 27. The theoretical analysis, fabrication procedure, experimental results, limitations, and improvements are described. Index Terms--Fabry-Perot interferometers, optical planar waveguide components, optical signal processing, microwave receivers.

Nonlinear optical modulation combined with simultaneous photonic and RF resonance in an LiNb[O.sub.3] microdisk modulator is used to create a self-homodyne photonic RF receiver. Carrier and sidebands are mixed in the optical domain, and the modulated optical signal is detected using a photodetector. The photodetector has a bandwidth matched to the baseband signal. It filters out the high-frequency components and generates the baseband photocurrent. Receiver operation is demonstrated by demodulating up to 100-Mb/s digital data from a 14.6-GHz carrier frequency without any high-speed electronic components. A bit error rate of [10.sup.-9] is measured for 10-Mb/s downconverted digital data at -15-dBm received RF power. Preliminary results of employing this photonic RF receiver in a short-distance K u-band wireless link demonstrate the potential of using high-quality optical microresonators in RF receiver applications. Index Terms--Electrooptic modulation, LiNb[O.sub.3] microdisk modulator, microwave receiver, nonlinear modulation.

The design and experimental results of a fix-tuned Superconductor-Insulator-Superconductor (SIS) mixer for Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) band 8 receivers is presented. This SIS mixer demonstrates a minimum double-sideband receiver noise temperature of 108 K at the band center and temperatures of less than 167 K over the whole band.

A new direct-conversion wide-band (26-28.5 GHz) six-port receiver is proposed for mass-market wireless communications. This six-port receiver is designed to operate without the need for precise power reading and the use of a digital signal processor that is usually required in other receivers. The proposed receiver architecture is chosen to satisfy requirements of hardware receivers used in high-speed QPSK communications. The receiver contains a receiver front-end, QPSK demodulator, and carrier recovery module. A reverse modulation loop was used to provide a rapid carrier recovery. The maximum bit rate is determined solely by the limiting speed of the baseband module. This new hardware receiver is proposed as a robust, rugged, low-cost receiver for use in wide K a-band wireless mass-market QPSK communications such as local multipoint distribution system services, which is a prime example of communication equipment requiring such receivers. Bit-error-rate results are presented versus the noise and reference signal phase shift. Index Terms--Carrier recovery, direct conversion, monolithic-microwave integrated-circuit (MMIC) technology, QPSK modulation, six-port junction.

A 1.9-GHz monolithic superheterodyne receiver front-end with 300-MHz IF on-chip tunable image-reject filter and voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO) is presented. Two versions of the receiver were fabricated on a 0.5-[mu]m bipolar process and compared to a previously fabricated version with an off-chip VCO. The two versions are identical, except for the fact that the 2.2-GHz VCO was realized with and without ground-shielded inductors. The receiver that used ground-shielded inductors had a conversion gain of 25.6 dB, a noise figure of 4.5 dB, a third-order input intercept point (IIP3) of -- 19 dBm, an image rejection of 65 dB, and a phase noise of -- 103 dBc/Hz at 100-kHz offset. The receiver drew 32.5 mA from a 3-V supply and had a die area of 2.1 mm x 1.7 mm. The local-oscillator-IF isolation improved compared to the previously fabricated front-end with an off-chip VCO. Index Terms--Inductors, integrated circuit design, MMIC receivers, notch filters, voltage-controlled oscillator.

A scanning receiver with a bandwidth of 40 GHz has been demonstrated. The system uses temporal scanning of a fiber Fabry-Perot etalon to analyze the microwave sidebands on an optical carrier. A proof-of-concept system has been measured, and a conversion efficiency of 280 mV/mW has been obtained at 10 GHz, giving an unamplified RF sensitivity of -2 dBm. The RF resolution is 90 MHz within the 40-GHz scan range. A theoretical analysis of the system is presented and mprovements and limitations are discussed. While the performance of the initial all-optical system is not comparable to high-performance microwave receivers, it is believed that the potential for system improvements exists. Index Terms - Fabry-Perot interferometers, microwave receivers, photonic signal processing.

Research was conducted to examine a waveguide receiver employing a phonon-cooled superconductive hot-electron bolometer mixer for operation near 80- GHz and to conduct astronomical observations with it. The receiver exhibited sufficient IF bandwidth, reasonable noise performance and is generally a very usable, practical system. It was successfully used to conduct test observations of a number of celestial sources in a number of astronomically important spectral lines.

Byline: M. Bersanelli (1), E. Mattaini (1), E. Santambrogio (1), A. Simonetto (1), S. Cirant (1), F. Gandini (1), C. Sozzi (1), N. Mandolesi (2), F. Villa (2) Keywords: cosmic microwave background; microwave instrumentation Abstract: We have produced a prototype broadband, low-sidelobe conical corrugated feed horn suitable for measurements of the Cosmic Microwave Blackground (CMB) radiation in the frequency band 120--150 GHz. The antenna is a first prototype for the Low Frequency Instrument array in ESA's PLANCK mission, a space project dedicated to CMB anisotropy mesurements in the 30--900 GHz range. We describe the fabrication method, based on silver electro-formation, and present the two-dimensional antenna beam pattern measured at 140 GHz with a milimeter-wave automated scalar test range. The beam has good symmetry in the E and H planes with a far sidelobe level approaching --60 dB at angles [proportional to] 80deg. An upper limit to the return loss was measured to be --21 dB. Author Affiliation: (1) CNR, Istituto di Fisica Cosmica, Milano, Italy (2) CNR, Istituto TESRE, Bologna, Italy Article History: Registration Date: 04/10/2004

Recently, much interest has been shown in the design of very low noise tuned front-end optical receivers for use in lightwave systems. This paper looks at the accurate design of such receivers. Simplified design expressions are presented for a number of tuning configurations with theoretical and measured results being presented. The designs were realized as GaAs monolithic microwave/millimeter-wave integrated circuits (MMIC's).

A fully-integrated superconducting receiver composed of a parallel biased SIS array mixer, a double dipole planar quasioptical antenna and a Josephson flux flow oscillator for frequency around 500 GHz and with matching circuits for digitizing and processing of down converted signals is developed. Experiments are performed to assess the receiver's performance. Results indicate the feasibility of using the receiver in sub-millimeter space astronomy.

A microstrip transmitter receiver circuit is developed by depositing thick-film yttrium barium copper oxide on a yttria-stabilized zirconia substrate and integrating the structure with a Gunn device. The circuit is phase locked to a high harmonic of the ring and has a Q-factor twice that of copper-based transceiver circuits. Its performance can be improved significantly by optimizing the impedance matching of the Gunn device.

A 4-bit instantaneous frequency meter (IFM) with a frequency range of 9.5-10.5 GHz is integrated with coplanar YBCO delay lines on a LaAlO3 wafer to create a compact, light size microwave receiver. The integration of the IFM and the delay lines on a single substrate minimizes the circuit's insertion loss and allows greater flexibility in the circuit design. The receiver has a maximum delay of 4.0 nanoseconds.

A microwave integrated circuit active receiver is built and tested at 19-25 GHz. The receiver consists of a planar CPW-fed double folded-slot antenna coupled to a six-stage MESFET amplifier and followed by a planar Schottky-diode detector. The folded-slot antenna on a GaAs half-space results in a wide frequency bandwidth suitable for MMIC amplifiers. The measured system performance show a video responsivity close to 1 GV/W at 20 GHz with a 3-dB bandwidth of 1500 MHz. A novel method which uses the planar video detector after the amplifier stages as an RF mixer is used to measure the noise-figure of the direct detection radiometer. The system noise figure is 4.8 dB at 22 GHz. The radiometer sensitivity to a hot/cold load is 3.8 [micron]V/K. The measured antenna patterns show a 90% Gaussicity at 20-22 GHz. The active MIC receiver can be integrated monolithically for low-cost applications and is well suited for millimeter-wave linear imaging arrays.

We report on the design and development of a heterodyne receiver, designed to cover the frequency range 176-256 GHz. This receiver incorporates a niobium superconductor-insulator-superconductor (SIS) tunnel junction mixer, which, chiefly for reasons of reliability and ease of operation, is a fixed-tuned waveguide design. On-chip tuning is provided to resonate out the junction's geometric capacitance and produce a good match to the waveguide circuit. Laboratory measurements on the first test receiver indicate that the required input bandwidth (about 40%) is achieved with an average receiver noise temperature of below 50 K. Mixer conversion gain is observed at some frequencies, and the lowest measured receiver noise is less than 30 K. Furthermore, the SIS mixer used in this receiver is of simple construction, is easy to assemble and is therefore a good candidate for duplication.

This paper describes the design, fabrication and measurements of a 94 GHz integrated monopulse receiver with IF beam control. The receiver is integrated on a single chip, and is based on a 23 GHz local oscillator driving four separate phase-coherent 94 GHz subharmonic mixers. The resulting IF signals are takeoff-chip to a IF monopulse processor, which produces sum and difference monopulse patterns for the elevation and azimuth coordinates. Voltage-controlled phase-shifters in each of the IF channels allow the monopulse patterns to be electronically steered. All of the receiver circuits are realized using uniplanar coplanar-waveguide (CPW), slot lines and coplanar striplines (CPS). These features result in a compact, low-cost system suitable for tracking systems operating in poor visibility conditions, as well as in collision avoidance receivers for automotive applications. To our knowledge, this work represents the first demonstration of a fully integrated millimeter-wave subsystem to date.

A wideband planar subharmonic mixer has been designed for millimeter-wave operation. The receiver consists of a novel back-to-back Schottky-diode pair integrated at the base of a wideband log-periodic antenna and placed on a silicon lens. The wideband planar receiver results in state-of-the art-performance at 90 GHz (and 182 GHz) with a double-sideband conversion loss and noise-temperature of 6.7 dB (and 8.5 dB) and 1080 K (and 1820 K), respectively. These results are about 3 dB higher than the best tuned waveguide subharmonic mixers using planar diodes. The design is well suited for higher frequencies (up to 1 THz) and for the inclusion of biased back-to-back planar diodes to ease the LO power requirements. The planar subharmonic approach results in an inexpensive wideband receiver and the design can be easily extended to receiver arrays.

This paper presents a new analytical procedure for the design of the conical corrugated feed horns used in the millimeter and submillimeter wavelength range, which could achieve wide-band single-mode operation and wide-band, low return-loss impedance matching simultaneously. A test model of the feed horn designed using this procedure displayed excellent performance, and agreed well with the theoretical predictions.

New advances in hot electron bolometer (HEB) mixers have recently resulted in record-low receiver noise temperatures at terahertz frequencies. We have developed quasi-optically coupled NbN HEB mixers and measured noise temperatures up to 2.24 THz, as described in this paper. We project the anticipated future performance of such receivers to have even lower noise temperature and local-oscillator power requirement as well as wider gain and noise bandwidths. We introduce a proposal for integrated focal plane arrays of HEB mixers that will further increase the detection speed of terahertz systems. Index Terms--Focal plane arrays, hot electron bolometer mixers, low-noise receivers, NbN, quasi-optical coupling, superconducting devices, terahertz technology.