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Gaier, Todd

Publications and source records attributed to Gaier, Todd.

At least 37 records · Page 2
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS2011

Low Noise Amplifiers and Receivers for Remote Sensing

The study of atmospheric dynamics and climatology depend on accurate and frequent measurements of temperature and humidity profiles of the atmosphere. These measurements furthermore enable highly accurate measurements of ocean topography by providing total column water vapour data for radar path delay correction. The atmospheric temperature profile is characterised at the oxygen molecule absorption frequencies (60 and 118 GHz) and the humidity profile at the water molecule absorption frequencies (23 and 183 GHz). Total column measurements can be achieved by comparing measured radiometric temperatures at atmospheric window channels, such as 90, 130 and 166 GHz. The standard receiver technology for these frequencies was diode mixers with MMIC LNAs being applied at the lower frequencies. The sensitivity of millimetre wave receivers improved significantly with the introduction of the low noise 35 nm gate length InP MMIC amplifiers. We currently achieve 3 dB noise figure at 180 GHz and 2 dB noise figure at 90 GHz with our MMIC low noise amplifiers (LNAs) in room temperature. These amplifiers and the receivers we have built using them made it possible to conduct highly accurate airborne measurement campaigns from the Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicle, develop millimeter wave internally calibrated radiometers for altimeter radar path delay correction, and build prototypes of large arrays of millimeter receivers for a geostationary interferometric sounder. We use the developed millimeter wave receivers to measure temperature and humidity profiles in the atmosphere and in hurricanes as well as to characterize the path delay error in ocean topography altimetry.

low noise amplifier↗
NASA NTRS2011

Geostationary Microwave Sounders: Science, Applications and the Geostar Instrument Concept

Microwave atmospheric sounders have long provided some of the most imporant data for use in numerical weather prediction (NWP) and have played an important role in atmospheric weather and climate research. With 7 US satellites now carrying such sensors, we are in a 'golden age' of microwave remote sensing of the atmosphere. However, as this fleet ages and is replaced by a smaller number of new sensors in the coming yars, the main shortcoming of sensors in low Earth orbit -i.e. poor spacial and temporal converage and sampling - will become more apparent. Placing such sensors on geostationary satellites, enabling time-continuous views of large portions of the Earth disc, would solve this problem. but the GEO orbit is approximately 40 times higher than a typical LEO orbit, which requires antenna apertures also about 40 times larger than for LEO systems to maintain spatial resolution, and it has not been feasible to develop such systems. Recently, a solution to this problem has appeared in the form of aperture synthesis.

numerical weather prediction (NWP)↗
NASA NTRS2011

GEOSTAR-II: A Prototype Water Vapor Imager/Sounder for the Path Mission

We describe the development and progress of the GeoSTAR-II risk reduction activity for the NASA Earth Science Decadal Survey PATH Mission. The activity directly addresses areas of technical risk including the system design, low noise receiver production, sub-array development, signal distribution and digital signal processing.

Monolithic Microwave Integrated Circuit (MMIC)↗
NASA NTRS2011

High-Altitude MMIC Sounding Radiometer - From the IIP to the Global Hawk

The HAMSR instrument is a 25 channel cross-track microwave sounder developed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory under the IIP-98 program. The instrument was recently upgraded under the NASA AITT program in 2008 to deploy on the Global Hawk UAV. The instrument now has state-of-the-art radiometric performance and the capability to process and display both brightness temperature imagery and derived products in real time. The improved performance of the instrument is demonstrated through retrievals of temperature and water vapor.

microwave sounder↗
NASA NTRS2010

Radiometer Testbed Development for SWOT

Conventional altimeters include nadir looking colocated 18-37 GHz microwave radiometer to measure wet tropospheric path delay. These have reduced accuracy in coastal zone (within ~50 km from land) and do not provide wet path delay over land. The addition of high frequency channels to Jason-class radiometer will improve retrievals in coastal regions and enable retrievals over land. High-frequency window channels, 90, 130 and 166 GHz are optimum for improving performance in coastal region and channels on 183 GHz water vapor line are ideal for over-land retrievals.

internally calibrated radiometer↗
NASA NTRS2010

Demonstration of a Submillimeter-Wave HEMT Oscillator Module at 330 GHz

In this work, radial transitions have been successfully mated with a HEMT-based MMIC (high-electron-mobility-transistor-based monolithic microwave integrated circuit) oscillator circuit. The chip has been assembled into a WR2.2 waveguide module for the basic implementation with radial E-plane probe transitions to convert the waveguide mode to the MMIC coplanar waveguide mode. The E-plane transitions have been directly integrated onto the InP substrate to couple the submillimeter-wave energy directly to the waveguides, thus avoiding wire-bonds in the RF path. The oscillator demonstrates a measured 1.7 percent DC-RF efficiency at the module level. The oscillator chip uses 35-nm-gate-length HEMT devices, which enable the high frequency of oscillation, creating the first demonstration of a packaged waveguide oscillator that operates over 300 GHz and is based on InP HEMT technology. The oscillator chip is extremely compact, with dimensions of only 1.085 x 320 sq mm for a total die size of 0.35 sq mm. This fully integrated, waveguide oscillator module, with an output power of 0.27 mW at 330 GHz, can provide low-mass, low DC-power-consumption alternatives to existing local oscillator schemes, which require high DC power consumption and large mass. This oscillator module can be easily integrated with mixers, multipliers, and amplifiers for building high-frequency transmit and receive systems at submillimeter wave frequencies. Because it requires only a DC bias to enable submillimeter wave output power, it is a simple and reliable technique for generating power at these frequencies. Future work will be directed to further improving the applicability of HEMT transistors to submillimeter wave and terahertz applications. Commercial applications include submillimeter-wave imaging systems for hidden weapons detection, airport security, homeland security, and portable low-mass, low-power imaging systems

Radisic, Vesna↗
NASA NTRS2010

A 311-GHz Fundamental Oscillator Using InP HBT Technology

This oscillator uses a single-emitter 0.3- m InP heterojunction bipolar transistor (HBT) device with maximum frequency of oscillation (fmax) greater than 500 GHz. Due to high conductor and substrate losses at submillimeterwave frequencies, a primary challenge is to efficiently use the intrinsic device gain. This was done by using a suitable transmission-line media and circuit topology. The passive components of the oscillator are realized in a twometal process with benzocyclobutene (BCB) used as the primary transmission line dielectric. The circuit was designed using microstrip transmission lines. The oscillator is implemented in a common-base topology due to its inherent instability, and the design includes an on-chip resonator, outputmatching circuitry, and an injection-locking port, the port being used to demonstrate the injection-locking prin ciple. A free-running frequency of 311.6 GHz has been measured by down-converting the signal. Ad di tionally, injection locking has been successfully demonstrated with up to 17.8 dB of injection-locking gain. The injection-locking reference signal is generated using a 2 20 GHz frequency synthesizer, followed by a doubler, active tripler, a W-band amplifier, and then a passive tripler. Therefore, the source frequency is multiplied 18 times to obtain a signal above 300 GHz that can be used to injection lock the oscillator. Measurement shows that injection locking has improved the phase noise of the oscillator and can be also used for synchronizing a series of oscillators. A signal conductor is implemented near the BCP -InP interface and the topside of the BCB layer is fully metallized as a signal ground. Because the fields are primarily constrained in the lower permittivity BCB region, this type of transmission line is referred to as an inverted microstrip. In addition, both common-emitter and commonbase circuits were investigated to determine optimum topology for oscillator design. The common -base topology required smaller amount of feedback than the common-emitter design, therefore preserving device gain, and was chosen for the oscillator design. The submillimeter-wave region offers several advantages for sensors and communication systems, such as high resolution and all-weather imaging due to the short-wavelength, and improved communication speeds by access to greater frequency bandwidth. This oscillator circuit is a prototype of the first HBT oscillator operating above 300 GHz. Additional development is necessary to increase the output power of the circuit for radar and imaging applications.

Gaier, Todd↗
NASA NTRS2009

MMICs with Radial Probe Transitions to Waveguides

A document presents an update on the innovation reported in Integrated Radial Probe Transition From MMIC to Waveguide (NPO-43957), NASA Tech Briefs Vol. 31, No. 5 (May 2007), page 38. To recapitulate: To enable operation or testing of a monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC), it is necessary to mount the MMIC in a waveguide package that typically has cross-sectional waveguide dimensions of the order of a few hundred microns. A radial probe transition between an MMIC operating at 340 GHz and a waveguide had been designed (but not yet built and tested) to be fabricated as part of a monolithic unit that would include the MMIC. The radial probe could readily be integrated with an MMIC amplifier because the design provided for fabrication of the transition on a substrate of the same material (InP) and thickness (50 m) typical of substrates of MMICs that can operate above 300 GHz. As illustrated in the updated document by drawings, photographs, and plots of test data, the concept has now been realized by designing, fabricating, and testing several MMIC/radial- probe integrated-circuit chips and designing and fabricating a waveguide package to contain each chip.

Samoska, Lorene↗
NASA NTRS2009

Tests of Low-Noise MMIC Amplifier Module at 290 to 340 GHz

A document presents data from tests of a low-noise amplifier module operating in the frequency range from 290 to 340 GHz said to be the highest-frequency low-noise, solid-state amplifier ever developed. The module comprised a three-stage monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC) amplifier integrated with radial probe MMIC/waveguide transitions and contained in a compact waveguide package, all according to the concepts described in the immediately preceding article and in the referenced prior article, "Integrated Radial Probe Transition From MMIC to Waveguide" (NPO-43957), NASA Tech Briefs Vol. 31, No. 5 (May 2007), page 38. The tests included measurements by the Y-factor method, in which noise figures are measured repeatedly with an input noise source alternating between an "on" (hot-load) condition and an "off" (cold-load) condition. (The Y factor is defined as the ratio between the "on" and "off" noise power levels.) The test results showed that, among other things, the module exhibited a minimum noise figure of about 8.7 dB at 325 GHz and that the gain at that frequency under the bias conditions that produced the minimum noise figure was between about 9 and 10 dB.

Gaier, Todd↗
NASA NTRS2009

Low-Noise Amplifier for 100 to 180 GHz

A three-stage monolithic millimeter-wave integrated-circuit (MMIC) amplifier designed to exhibit low noise in operation at frequencies from about 100 to somewhat above 180 GHz has been built and tested. This is a prototype of broadband amplifiers that have potential utility in diverse applications, including measurement of atmospheric temperature and humidity and millimeter-wave imaging for inspecting contents of opaque containers. Figure 1 depicts the amplifier as it appears before packaging. Figure 2 presents data from measurements of the performance of the amplifier as packaged in a WR-05 waveguide and tested in the frequency range from about 150 to about 190 GHz. The amplifier exhibited substantial gain throughout this frequency range. Especially notable is the fact that at 165 GHz, the noise figure was found to be 3.7 dB, and the noise temperature was found to be 370 K: This is less than half the noise temperature of the prior state of the art.

Kangaslahti, Pekka↗
NASA NTRS2009

100-GHz Phase Switch/Mixer Containing a Slot-Line Transition

A circuit that can function as a phase switch, frequency mixer, or frequency multiplier operates over a broad frequency range in the vicinity of 100 GHz. Among the most notable features of this circuit is a grounded uniplanar transition (in effect, a balun) between a slot line and one of two coplanar waveguides (CPWs). The design of this circuit is well suited to integration of the circuit into a microwave monolithic integrated circuit (MMIC) package. One CPW is located at the input end and one at the output end of the top side of a substrate on which the circuit is fabricated (see Figure 1). The input CPW feeds the input signal to antiparallel flip-chip Schottky diodes connected to the edges of the slot line. Phase switching is effected by the combination of (1) the abrupt transition from the input CPW to the slot line and (2) CPW ground tuning effected by switching of the bias on the diodes. Grounding of the slot metal to the bottom metal gives rise to a frequency cutoff in the slot. This cutoff is valuable for separating different frequency components when the circuit is used as a mixer or multiplier. Proceeding along the slot line toward the output end, one encounters the aforementioned transition, which couples the slot line to the output CPW. Impedance tuning of the transition is accomplished by use of a high-impedance section immediately before the transition.

Gaier, Todd↗
NASA NTRS2009

Submillimeter-Wave Amplifier Module with Integrated Waveguide Transitions

To increase the usefulness of monolithic millimeter-wave integrated circuit (MMIC) components at submillimeter-wave frequencies, a chip has been designed that incorporates two integrated, radial E-plane probes with an MMIC amplifier in between, thus creating a fully integrated waveguide module. The integrated amplifier chip has been fabricated in 35-nm gate length InP high-electron-mobility-transistor (HEMT) technology. The radial probes were mated to grounded coplanar waveguide input and output lines in the internal amplifier. The total length of the internal HEMT amplifier is 550 m, while the total integrated chip length is 1,085 m. The chip thickness is 50 m with the chip width being 320 m. The internal MMIC amplifier is biased through wire-bond connections to the gates and drains of the chip. The chip has 3 stages, employing 35-nm gate length transistors in each stage. Wire bonds from the DC drain and gate pads are connected to off-chip shunt 51-pF capacitors, and additional off-chip capacitors and resistors are added to the gate and drain bias lines for low-frequency stability of the amplifier. Additionally, bond wires to the grounded coplanar waveguide pads at the RF input and output of the internal amplifier are added to ensure good ground connections to the waveguide package. The S-parameters of the module, not corrected for input or output waveguide loss, are measured at the waveguide flange edges. The amplifier module has over 10 dB of gain from 290 to 330 GHz, with a peak gain of over 14 dB at 307 GHz. The WR2.2 waveguide cutoff is again observed at 268 GHz. The module is biased at a drain current of 27 mA, a drain voltage of 1.24 V, and a gate voltage of +0.21 V. Return loss of the module is very good between 5 to 25 dB. This result illustrates the usefulness of the integrated radial probe transition, and the wide (over 10-percent) bandwidth that one can expect for amplifier modules with integrated radial probes in the submillimeter-regime (>300 GHz).

Samoska, Lorene↗
NASA NTRS2008

HEMT Amplifiers and Equipment for their On-Wafer Testing

Power amplifiers comprising InP-based high-electron-mobility transistors (HEMTs) in coplanar-waveguide (CPW) circuits designed for operation at frequencies of hundreds of gigahertz, and a test set for onwafer measurement of their power levels have been developed. These amplifiers utilize an advanced 35-nm HEMT monolithic microwave integrated-circuit (MMIC) technology and have potential utility as local-oscillator drivers and power sources in future submillimeter-wavelength heterodyne receivers and imaging systems. The test set can reduce development time by enabling rapid output power characterization, not only of these and similar amplifiers, but also of other coplanar-waveguide power circuits, without the necessity of packaging the circuits.

Fung, King man↗
NASA NTRS2008

On-Wafer Measurement of a Silicon-Based CMOS VCO at 324 GHz

The world s first silicon-based complementary metal oxide/semiconductor (CMOS) integrated-circuit voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO) operating in a frequency range around 324 GHz has been built and tested. Concomitantly, equipment for measuring the performance of this oscillator has been built and tested. These accomplishments are intermediate steps in a continuing effort to develop low-power-consumption, low-phase-noise, electronically tunable signal generators as local oscillators for heterodyne receivers in submillimeter-wavelength (frequency > 300 GHz) scientific instruments and imaging systems. Submillimeter-wavelength imaging systems are of special interest for military and law-enforcement use because they could, potentially, be used to detect weapons hidden behind clothing and other opaque dielectric materials. In comparison with prior submillimeter- wavelength signal generators, CMOS VCOs offer significant potential advantages, including great reductions in power consumption, mass, size, and complexity. In addition, there is potential for on-chip integration of CMOS VCOs with other CMOS integrated circuitry, including phase-lock loops, analog- to-digital converters, and advanced microprocessors.

Samoska, Lorene↗
NASA NTRS2008

Compact, Single-Stage MMIC InP HEMT Amplifier

A monolithic micro - wave integrated-circuit (MMIC) singlestage amplifier containing an InP-based high-electron-mobility transistor (HEMT) plus coplanar-waveguide (CPW) transmission lines for impedance matching and input and output coupling, all in a highly miniaturized layout as needed for high performance at operating frequencies of hundreds of gigahertz is described.

Pukala, David↗
NASA NTRS2008

Three-Stage InP Submillimeter-Wave MMIC Amplifier

A submillimeter-wave monolithic integrated- circuit (S-MMIC) amplifier has been designed and fabricated using an indium phosphide (InP) 35-nm gate-length high electron mobility transistor (HEMT) device, developed at Northrop Grumman Corporation. The HEMT device employs two fingers each 15 micrometers wide. The HEMT wafers are grown by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) and make use of a pseudomorphic In0.75Ga0.25As channel, a silicon delta-doping layer as the electron supply, an In0.52Al0.48As buffer layer, and an InP substrate. The three-stage design uses coplanar waveguide topology with a very narrow ground-to-ground spacing of 14 micrometers. Quarter-wave matching transmission lines, on-chip metal-insulator-metal shunt capacitors, series thin-film resistors, and matching stubs were used in the design. Series resistors in the shunt branch arm provide the basic circuit stabilization. The S-MMIC amplifier was measured for S-parameters and found to be centered at 320 GHz with 13-15-dB gain from 300-345 GHz. This chip was developed as part of the DARPA Submillimeter Wave Imaging Focal Plane Technology (SWIFT) program (see figure). Submillimeter-wave amplifiers could enable more sensitive receivers for earth science, planetary remote sensing, and astrophysics telescopes, particularly in radio astronomy, both from the ground and in space. A small atmospheric window at 340 GHz exists and could enable ground-based observations. However, the submillimeter-wave regime (above 300 GHz) is best used for space telescopes as Earth s atmosphere attenuates most of the signal through water and oxygen absorption. Future radio telescopes could make use of S-MMIC amplifiers for wideband, low noise, instantaneous frequency coverage, particularly in the case of heterodyne array receivers.

Pukala, David↗
NASA NTRS2008

Measurements by a Vector Network Analyzer at 325 to 508 GHz

Recent experiments were performed in which return loss and insertion loss of waveguide test assemblies in the frequency range from 325 to 508 GHz were measured by use of a swept-frequency two-port vector network analyzer (VNA) test set. The experiments were part of a continuing effort to develop means of characterizing passive and active electronic components and systems operating at ever increasing frequencies. The waveguide test assemblies comprised WR-2.2 end sections collinear with WR-3.3 middle sections. The test set, assembled from commercially available components, included a 50-GHz VNA scattering- parameter test set and external signal synthesizers, augmented with recently developed frequency extenders, and further augmented with attenuators and amplifiers as needed to adjust radiofrequency and intermediate-frequency power levels between the aforementioned components. The tests included line-reflect-line calibration procedures, using WR-2.2 waveguide shims as the "line" standards and waveguide flange short circuits as the "reflect" standards. Calibrated dynamic ranges somewhat greater than about 20 dB for return loss and 35 dB for insertion loss were achieved. The measurement data of the test assemblies were found to substantially agree with results of computational simulations.

Fung, King Man↗