Voltage-Tunable Microwave Monolithic Integrated Circuits

摘要

The incorporation of voltage-tunable reactive elements in microwave monolithic integrated circuits (MMICs) would increase the performance, yield, producibility, adaptability, and affordability of these devices. These improvements would be very important for both low-volume applications, (e.g., space communications) and high-volume applications, (e.g., space-based radar). The feasibility of this concept will be explored by means of the computer-aided design and simulation facilities at The Aerospace Corporation. It is anticipated that some laboratory experiments in selected tuning concepts will be conducted. Tunability would broaden the adaptability of a single design to a wider range of frequency and bandwidth applications. Yield and adaptability relate to the ability to produce chips at an affordable cost.