• Journal of information and communication convergence engineering
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.56-61
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• 2013

Modern integrated circuits (ICs) are becoming an integrated parts of analog, digital, and radio frequency (RF) circuits. Testing these RF circuits on a chip is an important task, not only for fabrication quality control but also for tuning RF circuit elements to fit multi-standard wireless systems. In this paper, RF test circuits suitable for embedded testing are introduced: RF power detectors, power control circuits, directional couplers, and six-port reflectometers. Various types of embedded RF power detectors are reviewed. The conventional approach and our approach for the RF power control circuits are compared. Also, embedded tunable active directional couplers are presented. Then, six-port reflectometers for embedded RF testing are introduced including a 77-GHz six-port reflectometer circuit in a 130 nm process. This circuit demonstrates successful calibrated reflection coefficient simulation results for 37 well distributed samples in a Smith chart. The details including the theory, calibration, circuit design techniques, and simulations of the 77-GHz six-port reflectometer are presented in this paper.

• Proceedings of the IEEK Conference
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• 2000.07b
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• pp.1119-1122
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• 2000

This paper describes on RF circuit simulation technique, especially on a RF modeling and a model extraction of a LDMOS(Lateral Diffused MOS) that has gate-width (Wg) dependence. Small-signal model parameters of the LDMOSs with various gate-widths extracted from S-parameter data are applied to make the relation between the RF performances and gate-width. It is proved that a source inductance (Ls) was not applicable to scaling rules. These extracted small-signal model parameters are also utilized to remove extrinsic elements in an extraction of a large-signal model (using HP Root MOSFET Model). Therefore, we can omit an additional measurement to extract extrinsic elements. When the large-signal model with Ls having the above gate-width dependence is applied to a high-power LDMOS module, the simulated performances (Output power, etc.) are in a good agreement with experimental results. It is proved that our extracted model and RF circuit simulation have a good accuracy.

• Electronics and Telecommunications Trends
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• v.36 no.3
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• pp.53-64
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• 2021

As the 5G service market is expected to grow rapidly, the development of high-power, high-efficiency power amplifiers for the 5G communication infrastructure is indispensable. Gallium nitride (GaN) is attracting great interest as a key device in power devices and integrated circuits due to its wide bandgap, high carrier concentration, high electron mobility, and high-power saturation characteristics. In this study, we investigate the technology trends of Ka-band GaN radio frequency (RF) power devices and integrated circuits for operation in the millimeter-wave band of recent 5G mobile communication services. We review the characteristics of GaN RF high electron mobility transistor (HEMT) devices to implement power amplifiers operating at frequencies around 28 GHz and compare the technology of foreign companies with the device characteristics currently developed by the Electronics and Telecommunication Research Institute (ETRI). In addition, the characteristics of Ka-band GaN monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC) power amplifiers manufactured using various GaN HEMT device technologies are reviewed by comparing characteristics such as frequency band, output power, and output power density of integrated circuits. In addition, by comparing the performance of the power amplifier developed by ETRI, the current status and future direction of domestic GaN power devices and integrated circuit technology will be discussed.

• JSTS:Journal of Semiconductor Technology and Science
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• v.7 no.3
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• pp.166-176
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• 2007

Radio frequency (RF) microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) have been pursued for more than a decade as a solution of high-performance on-chip fixed, tunable and reconfigurable circuits. This paper reviews our research work on RF MEMS switches and switching circuits in the past five years. The research work first concentrates on the development of lateral DC-contact switches and capacitive shunt switches. Low insertion loss, high isolation and wide frequency band have been achieved for the two types of switches; then the switches have been integrated with transmission lines to achieve different switching circuits, such as single-pole-multi-throw (SPMT) switching circuits, tunable band-pass filter, tunable band-stop filter and reconfigurable filter circuits. Substrate transfer process and surface planarization process are used to fabricate the above mentioned devices and circuits. The advantages of these two fabrication processes provide great flexibility in developing different types of RF MEMS switches and circuits. The ultimate target is to produce more powerful and sophisticated wireless appliances operating in handsets, base stations, and satellites with low power consumption and cost.

• Proceedings of the IEEK Conference
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• 2008.06a
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• pp.24-25
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• 2008

An Electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection has been a very important reliability issue in microelectronics, especially for RF (Radio Frequency) integrated circuits (ICs). This paper reviews design and analysis of on-chip ESD (electrostatic discharge) protection circuits for RF applications. Key issues in RF ESD protection, design methods, and RF ESD protection solutions are discussed.

• Proceedings of the IEEK Conference
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• 2006.06a
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• pp.615-616
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• 2006

Nowadays, the need of multi-mode/multi-band transceiver is rapidly increasing, so we design a direct conversion RF front-end for multi-mode/multi-band receiver that support WCDMA/CDMA2000/WIBRO standard. It consists of variable gain reconfigurable LNA and single input double balanced Mixer and complementary differential LC Oscillator. The circuit is implemented in 0.18 um RF CMOS technology and is suitable for low-cost mode/multi-band.

• Journal of Aerospace System Engineering
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• v.16 no.6
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• pp.18-23
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• 2022

This paper examines the electromagnetic shielding structure of ultra-high frequency (UHF) RF modules used in aircraft. Advances in electrical and electronic technologies have increased the need for electronic equipment in aircraft. High-frequency wireless devices have become integrated circuits in the form of UHF integrated circuits to support a wide range of frequencies and miniaturisation. To ensure the functionality and performance of these integrated devices in aviation, shielding is necessary to prevent unexpected electromagnetic interference, which could be detrimental to aircraft safety. A shield structure was designed to protect the RF chipset from malfunctioning, and the shielding effectiveness was improved through the application of various geometric shapes.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea SD
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• v.47 no.8
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• pp.36-46
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• 2010

In multi-GHz RF ICs and high-speed digital interfaces, ESD protection devices introduce considerable parasitic capacitance and resistance to inputs and outputs, thereby degrading the RF performance, such as input/output matching, gain, and noise figure. In this paper, the impact of ESD protection devices on the performance of RF ICs is investigated and design methodologies to minimize this impact are discussed. With RF and ESD test results, the 'RF/ESD co-design' method is discussed and compared to the conventional RF ESD protection method which focuses on minimizing the device size.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics and Information Engineers
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• v.52 no.4
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• pp.88-95
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• 2015

This paper presents a new analysis of RF negative resistance (RFNR) circuits, known as a negative resistance generator. For accurate equation analysis of RFNR, this study examined the effects of the gate resistance and the source parasitic capacitance of the transistor. In addition, the input admittance of the conventional equation was calculated by looking into the source-terminal of the transistor, whereas that of the proposed equation was calculated by examining the gate-terminal of the transistor. The proposed equation analysis is more accurate than that of the conventional analysis, especially for higher frequency range. This paper verify the accuracy of the proposed analysis at high frequency range using the simulation.

• Proceedings of the KIEE Conference
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• 2004.07c
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• pp.2052-2054
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• 2004

The TX/RX broadband L-type circular polarization antenna using LTCC at K/Ka band has been presented. This antenna has been analyzed in compensation for LTCC with relative permittivity 5.2 and could have been integrated with RF component. As the measured 10dB impedance circular polarization bandwidth of the proposed antenna is 7%(20.8GHz${\sim}$22.2GHz) at the K band and 2.3%(30.9GHz to 31.6GHz) at the Ka band. Also the gain of the antenna is -0.7${\sim}$3.05dBi at the K band and -2.8${\sim}$1dBi at the Ka band. The purpose of the research is to design an efficient antenna structure for satellite communication at K/Ka band. the antenna should be used for both TX and RX frequency bands. The antenna will be mounted on LTCC(Low Temperature Co-fired Ceramic) so that it can be integrated with other RF circuits. This research is important because of the following reasons. 1) The frequency ranges of satellite communication tends to move up to higher frequency such as Ka band or milimeter wave band. 2) Design of antenna for smaller size, lighter weight and less loss is preferred by most RF engineers. 3) Antennas on LTCC enables to integrate the antenna with other RF circuits, and thus, one can reduce the size and loss of the RF system.