A new type NRD-guide receiving front-end in Ka-band

A new type millimeter-wave receiving frond-end using NRD-guide as internal transmission line is presented in this paper. The receiving frond-end consists of a NRD-guide crossbar balanced mixer, a NRD-guide LSE mode local oscillator and two impedance-converters at two input ports of the mixer circuit. Firstly, the propagation characteristics of some transmission modes often used in NRD-guide are given, and the conditions which these modes are applied as the operating modes are discussed. Secondly, the principle of the balanced mixed which is regarded as the key circuit unit in the receiving frond-end is analysed by using vector Green's function, and the conversion loss of the mixer is computed with an equivalent circuit in Ka-band. And then, from the view of obtaining the optimum performances of the whole receiving frond-end, some methods of designing local oscillator are expound. Some experimental results of the receiving frond-end at Kaband are given in the paper lastly. Because the frond-end have the impedance matching and converting circuits, it possesses better electrical performance. The integrated frond-end which have compact size and excellent shock strength is suitable for varied millimeter-wave system.     

Discontinuity of NRD-Guide and Its Application in Millimeter Wave Circuits

In this paper, the performances of two typical discontinuous structures of the NRD-guide, the traverse metallic rod to disturb an incident wave and the traverse probe to excite required modes, are analyzed and computed by utilizing the theory of modes orthogonality of the NRD-guide. The moment method is used to evaluate the current distribution on the rod and probe and the affection of some higher-order modes is taken into account simultaneously. On these bases, the multitone exciting steady states of two kinds of important circuits that employ the above discontinuous structures, the NRD-guide crossbar balanced mixer and the LSM ₁₁ ⁰ -mode oscillator, are simulated by the harmonic balance technique based on the multi-dimensional discrete Fourier transformation (MDFT-HB method).     

Steady-State Responses of NRD-Guide LSE/LSM Mode Oscillators in MM-Wave Bands

The analysis methods for the steady-state responses of the mm-wave band NRD-guide negative impedance oscillators based on nonlinear microwave autonomous circuits harmonic balanced method are presented in the paper in details. Firstly, the large-signal nonlinear lumped equivalent circuits of the Gunn diode are studied in mm-wave bands. Then, the performances of two kinds of NRD-guide autonomous circuits, the probe-exciting LSM ₁₁ ^o-mode oscillator and the LSE ₁₁ ^o-mode oscillator, are analyzed by the way of extracting the large-signal dynamic harmonic admittance (conductance) of the Gunn diode or directly configuring the harmonic balance equations for the oscillator. The input impedance of the exciting probe in the oscillator and the performances of the load-pulling and the local stability of the NRD-guide oscillator are also involved.     

The transmission performance degradation of the optical millimeter-wave signals by fiber chromatic dispersion

The influence of the fiber chromatic dispersion on double sideband (DSB), optical carrier suppression (OCS), and single sideband (SSB) optical mm-wave signals is investigated based on the Taylor expansion of the propagation constant and is verified by simulation. According to our theoretical results, the fading effect suppresses the signal power of the DSB optical mm-wave periodically in a cosine-like pattern, and it can be described by the zero-order Taylor expansion of the propagation constant. For the optical mm-wave with the signal modulated on two or more tones, the bit pulses of the mm-wave signal are distorted by the dispersion-inducing bit walk-off effect between tones, which is expressed by the first-order Taylor expansion of the propagation constant. Moreover, as the signal rate and the transmission distance are increased further, higher-order Taylor expansion of the propagation constant still degrades the optical mm-wave signal even if both the fading effect and the bit walk-off effect are eliminated completely. The distortion of the signal pulses of SSB optical mm-wave is derived based on the second-order Taylor expansion of the propagation constant. This degradation is verified by the simulation with the eye diagram evolution of the SSB optical mm-wave signal.     

A Very Low-Noise Integrated 3MM-Wave Schottky Diode Mixer and PHEMT IF Amplifier

An integrated 3mm-wave Schottky diode mixer and pseudomorphic high-electron-mobility transistor (PHEMT) IF amplifier with record noise performance at room temperature is described. The design has shown the room-temperature double-sideband (DSB) receiver noise temperature T_R^DSB of 190 K at 100 GHz due to a very low conversion loss in the full-height waveguide mixer and an ultra-low noise of the PHEMT IF amplifier. The receiver noise temperature has been reduced by a factor of 1.5 in comparison with the best previously reported 3mm-wave Schottky diode mixer receiver.     

A Novel UWB Antenna with Small Side-Leakage

A successful design for a UWB (ultra-wideband antennas) antenna based on NRD-guide (nonradiative dielectric waveguide) with small side-leakage is presented. The rule of the theoretical selection of its parameters, if NRD-guide is used as the UWB antennas, is studied firstly, then the temporal propagation characteristics of the NRD-guide and the radiation characteristics for an tapered open-ended NRD-guide are calculated by FDTD (finite-difference time-domain) method.     

The digital predistortion of non-linear frequency modulation of voltage-controlling-oscillator in MM-band

The reason and rectification method of the non-linear frequency modulation of voltage-controlling-oscillator in millimeter-wave band have been presented in this paper. The digital predistortion for the controlling signal of the varactor in VCO possesses high rectification sensitivity, simple circuit and convenient adjustment. The method can be used in mm-wave and microwave VCOs that are fabricated by all kinds' transmission lines, and can eliminate the dispersion of FM characteristic in VCOs that are usually caused by the machining deviation and the inconsistent parameters of semiconductors. The digital predistortion technique has been applied in NRD-guide VCO in Ka-band, which main performances are: f0 = 36.30648GHz, the frequency-stability reaches 2.26×10^–5, the maximum frequency-deviation is 150MHz, the linear-FM error is less than 5%.     

SEMICONDUCTOR-SUPERLATTICE FREQUENCY MIXER FOR DETECTION OF SUBMILLIMETER WAVES

We report on a GaAs/AlAs superlattice frequency mixer for detection of submillimeter waves. The mixer is based on the nonlinear miniband transport giving rise to domains excited under the action of a microwave field. We designed the mixer for broadband operation (300–600 GHz). For studying basic properties, we investigated the mixer as a harmonic mixer in 15^th order to detect radiation at a radio frequency (RF) near 300 GHz using local oscillator (LO) radiation of a frequency near 20 GHz. We reached a noise equivalent power (NEP) of about 10 fW/Hz. We also show that the use of the superlattice mixer together with a superlattice frequency multiplier allows to realize a superlattice-based free-space transmission line for submillimeter waves.     

Impact of the mobile terminal scheme on millimeter-wave radio over fiber systems based on photonic heterodyning techniques

The use of communication networks relying on millimeter-wave (mm-wave) wireless links promises a great capacity enhancement as well as improved security. However, given the high-directivity of mm-wave links, coverage requirements are difficult to meet unless the network is assisted by an infrastructure. Given its low-cost, power-efficiency, and high capacity, radio over fiber has emerged as a strong candidate for the implementation of such infrastructure. Among the different generation techniques, photonic heterodyning has attracted considerable attention due to its capacity to generate radio frequency (RF) signals in the entire microwave/mm-wave range without requiring broadband electro-optical modulator. However, the RF signals generated using these techniques suffer from significant phase noise, a major impairment that degrades the system performance. In this paper we study two approaches to overcome this limitation: (1) the use of optical sideband injection locking (OSBIL) to generate tones with highly correlated phase noise and (2) heterodyning independent lasers in combination with a mobile terminal (MT) that is insensitive to the phase of the RF signal. A qualitative comparison between the two techniques in terms of MT sensitivity to the RF phase noise, the power sensitivity, and base station power efficiency leads to the conclusion that OSBIL is more suitable for networks with medium-range node separation, whereas heterodyning of independent laser with phase-insensitive MT is a cost-efficient solution for networks where nodes are closer to each other.     

Analysis and application of NRD-guide excitors

In this paper, the NRD-guide excitors using a length of coaxial line which consists of a rectangle external conductor and a thin round inner conductor are presented, and the characteristics of the input impedances of LSE ₁₁ ^o mode and LSM ₁₁ ^o mode at the insertion points are analysed and calculated by using the method of the rector Green's function respectively. The computation results show that the mode excitors are able to improve the operating modes matching between NRD-guide and the quasi-TEM transmission line. The structures are suitable for fabrication LSE ₁₁ ^o mode oscillator and LSM ₁₁ ^o mode oscillator to compose millimeter wave NRD-guide integrated front ends. An example of an LSE ₁₁ ^o mode oscillator in Ka-band is given. Its oscillation frequency and output power could be easily adjusted by changing the parameters of the excitor.     

Characteristic impedance of nonradiative dielectric waveguide and its application

In this paper a formula for determining the characteristic impedance of the nonradiative dielectric waveguide (NRD-guide) is presented. The numerical results are obtained, which are very useful for designing NRD waveguide components, such as impedance transformers, filters, branch-line hybrids, and active circuits. As a practical example for applying the formula, a 3 dB brainched NRD-guide directional coupler was designed and fabricated. The experiments show good consistency with the theory.     

Scaled model measurements of embedding impedances for SIS waveguide mixers

Several scaled models have been used to determine the contributions of various waveguide mount parameters to the embedding impedance of a mm-wave SIS mixer. Measured effects of waveguide height, substrate orientation and width, junction location, lead inductance and RF-filter impedance are presented and discussed.     

Analysis and design of a new type NRD-guide E-plane Y-junction circulator

A new type of E-plane Y-junction circulator has been developed based on the nonradiative dielectric waveguide (NRD-guide) in Ka- band. First, the circulation principle has been analysed by the theory of polarization wave. The field components in the nonreciprocal Y-junction zone and the conclusion of 60° phase difference between clockwise and counterclockwise rotating polarization modes has been obtained. And then, the resonant frequency of the non-dc biased triangle ferrite sample has also been calculated. This kind of structure is benefit to enlarge the bandwidth of the Y-junction circulator. As an example, we had designed and fabricated a circulator in Ka-band. Its operating frequency is 35. 1GHz, the 1.5dB insertion loss and 20dB isolation bandwidth is about 1. 0GHz.     

The development of nonradiative dielectric waveguide transmitting front-end in Ka-band

The operating theory,design method and experimental results of the nonradiative dielectric waveguide (NRD-guide) transmitting front-end in millimeter wave band are related in details in this paper. As a kind of dielectric waveguide,the NRD-guide possesses fine transmission performances, and it can be used to fabricate the millimeter wave hyterodyne integrated circuits. The two kinds NRD-guide transmitting front-ends substantiated in the paper, the voltage controlling oscillator(VCO) and twin-Gunn-diode power-combiner,have very similar structures to each other and possess compact sizes, fine machinery and electric performances.For the VCO front-end in Ka-band, the frequency modulation band is greater than 150MHz, the output power is larger than 20mW.For the power-combiner, the output power is larger than 40mW,the combination efficiency is better than 90%,the frequency stabilization reaches 1.68×10^–5. Combined with the receiving front-end reported before,the transmitter and receiver can be composed to a dielectric waveguide R/T module to be applied in some millimeter wave sub-systems.     

Time-domain multimode dispersion measurement in a higher-order-mode fiber

We present a new multimode dispersion measurement technique based on the time-of-flight method. The modal delay and group velocity dispersion of all excited modes in a few-mode fiber can be measured simultaneously by a tunable pulsed laser and a high speed sampling oscilloscope. A newly designed higher-order-mode fiber with large anomalous dispersion in the LP(02) mode has been characterized using this method, and experimental results are in good agreement with the designed dispersion values. The demonstrated technique is significantly simpler to implement than the existing frequency-domain or interferometry-based methods.     

GaInAs/AlInAs superlattice oscillators for optical to mm-wave conversion

A simple optical to mm-wave conversion device is reported. It is based upon a GaInAs/AlInAs superlattice designed to produce mm-wave generation through the miniband negative conductance. It is driven by a light signal modulated near the oscillator fundamental frequency in order to obtain optical injection locking. The present paper stresses different material and non-linear transport properties necessary to optimise such devices at optical communications wavelengths.     

Theoretical and experimental research on nonradiative dielectric waveguide directional couplers

A practical design of nonradiative dielectric (NRD) waveguide directional couplers is presented. The dispersion characteristics of coupled NRD-guides and the scattering coefficients of NRD-guide directional couplers are studied as well as the transitions from metal rectangular wave-guide to NRD-guide couplers. Experiments of 3-dB and 10-dB NRD-guide couplers in ka-band show that the couplers are of good performance and promise in millimeter-wave integrated circuits.     

Monofrequency excitation of open resonator with inclined comb grating

The theoretical and experimental analysis of the open resonator with the reflection diffraction comb grating has been presented. This resonator has excitation where is close to the monofrequency mode. This results may be used for the elaboration of mm-wave quasi-optical devices such as generators, mixer, converter, wavemeters and others.     

10 Gb/s optical carrier distributed network with W-band (0.1 THz) short-reach wireless communication system

Millimeter-wave (mm-wave) operated in W-band (75 GHz–0.11 THz) is of particular interests, since this frequency band can carry signals at much higher data rates. We demonstrate a 10 Gb/s optical carrier-distributed network with the wireless communication system. The mm-wave signal at carrier frequency of 0.1 THz is generated by a high speed near-ballistic uni-traveling carrier photodiode (NBUTC-PD) based transmitter (Tx), which is optically excited by optical short pulses. The optical pulse source is produced from a self-developed photonic mm-wave waveform generator (PMWG), which allows spectral line-by-line pulse shaping. Hence these optical pulses have high tolerance to fiber chromatic dispersion. The W-band 10 Gb/s wireless data is transmitted and received via a pair of horn antennas. The received 10 Gb/s data is envelope-detected and then used to drive an optical modulator at the remote antenna unit (RAU) to produce the upstream signal sending back to the central office (CO). 20 km single mode fiber (SMF) error free transmission is achieved. Analysis about the optimum repetition rate of the optical pulse source and the transmission performance of the upstream signal are also performed and discussed.     

Millimetre-wave fibre–wireless transmission systems with reduced effects of fibre chromatic dispersion

This paper describes two techniques for the implementation of millimetre-wave (mm-wave) wireless communication systems incorporating optical fibre distribution networks. Fibre chromatic dispersion can exhibit severe effects on the transportation of mm-wave frequencies over fibre, resulting in greatly reduced post-detection rf powers. Each mm-wave fibre–wireless system demonstrated here incorporates a method for the generation and modulation of an optical mm-wave carrier, which enables the effect of fibre dispersion to be significantly reduced. One set-up is a direct-detection scheme where optical single-sideband (SSB) with carrier modulation is used to overcome fibre dispersion effects. The other system employs a self-heterodyne arrangement in which a dual-frequency optical source generates a low phase-noise mm-wave beat signal. Data transmission is achieved by externally modulating the dual-mode signal and reduced effects of fibre dispersion are observed.