A Low Power GaAs MMIC Multi-Function Chip for an X-Band Active Phased Array Radar System

Abstract

An MMIC multi-function chip with a low DC power consumption for an X-band active phased array radar system has been designed and fabricated using a 0.5 μm GaAs p-HEMT commercial process. The multi-function chip provides several functions: 6-bit phase shifting, 6-bit attenuation, transmit/receive switching, and signal amplification. The fabricated multi-function chip with a compact size of 16 mm 2 (4 mm×4 mm) exhibits a gain of 10 dB and a P1dB of 14 dBm from 7 GHz to 11 GHz with a DC low power consumption of only 0.6 W. The RMS(Root Mean Square) errors for the 64 states of the 6-bit phase shift and attenuation were measured to 3° and 0.6 dB, respectively over the frequency.