Vco/Radiator Module Tuned by Ferroelectric Varactor

Abstract

Design of tunable Gunn diode-based active antenna module including a new type of planar dielectric resonator (PDR) tuned by a ferroelectric (FE) varactor is presented. The module is designed in such a way that the PDR acts both as a stabilizing resonator and as a radiator. MW properties of FE elements used for VCO tuning are considered. The module operates at frequency around of 17 GHz and demonstrates the radiated power of 8.8 ± 0.1 dBm over the 130 MHz tuning range and a phase-noise level of −95 dBc/Hz at 100 kHz offset. 65 • width of the radiation pattern in both the E and H planes corresponding to a gain of 5.1 dBi was measured. The maximal VCO power limited by the dielectric nonlinearity of a FE film in the microwave electric field and by the FE film overheating is estimated for FE film-based varactors of the planar and parallel structures.

Circuit and System Applications of Tunable Ferroelectric Devices

“…Using hollow waveguide power splitters (Buslov et al 2006, Kozyrev et al 2008) allow a substantial reduction of the microwave losses and improving the overall performance of the array at the expenses of reduced flexibility, i.e. dynamic control of amplitude distribution.…”