Monolithic technology for Wafer Scale Phased Arrays

Phased arrays are critical for locating and tracking. Current TR modules use multiple MMIC chips, ferrite circulators and quasi-optical true-time-delay (TTD). Chip integration is not possible and interconnecting with GHZ RF outputs is a complicated board problem with little scalability to higher bandwidth, smaller size and lower power. OPEL proposes a monolithic IC solution based upon novel optoelectronic (OE) thryistor circuit design. Thyristor/HFET circuits implement TTD without a physical delay line and a novel power amplifier with a thyristor as an OE oscillator driving a Class E output. The receive channel is implemented with a thyristor LNA/mixer to achieve down-conversion with gain which is digitized with a new ƒA-ƒ' modulator. A thyristor based ripple counter implements a serializer circuit and produces the inverse TTD function for return signals without a physical delay line. Both T and R channels are integrated using a novel dielectric isolation. Optical and RF signal paths are maximized and minimized respectively to achieve a dramatic reduction in size weight and loss. As a monolithic circuit, wafer scale interconnect is implemented with a single interconnect mask. A 3¡" GaAs wafer can produce an array of about 16x16 integrated modules. OPEL will demonstrate this wafer scale integration