Nonlinear Circuit Stability Under Large-Signal Pumping: Three-Port mu Stability Factor Versus Conversion Matrix System Identification - Application to a Millimeter-Wave Band MMIC Up-Converter

作者：Detratti M; Aja B; de la Fuente Ma L; Sancho S; Pascual J P^*

来源：International Journal of RF and Microwave Computer-Aided Engineering, 2010, 20(6): 711-720.

DOI：10.1002/mmce.20481

• nonlinear circuits
• stability
• mixers
• conversion matrix
• MMICs
• system identification

This article presents and discusses a method to determine stability in non-linear three-port circuits based on a generalized three-port mu stability factor applied to linearized S parameters under large-signal pumping. A comparison with an extension of the conversion matrix based, system pole zero identification used to analyze circuit stability is also presented. The relationship between the two techniques has been verified by means of an ideal two-port nonlinear circuit, and then, it has been applied in the design of a three-port millimeter-wave Monolithic Microwave Integrated Circuit (MMIC) up-converter. The circuit has been fabricated in a commercial GaAs process. On-wafer measurements showed an average conversion loss about 3.5 dB in a RF bandwidth between 40.4 and 41.5 GHz with local oscillator (LO) frequency fixed at 42.5 GHz. A RF/LO isolation better than 25 dB was measured in the whole band, also showing outstanding intermodulation performance. With the proposed approach, the appearance of spurious oscillations was prevented.

• 出版日期2010-11