INSULAR WAVEGUIDE-BASED INTEGRABLE WIDEBAND MIXER FOR MILLIMETER WAVE RADAR APPLICATIONS

MILLIMETER-WAVE SYSTEMS ARE RAPIDLY EMERGING WITH NUMEROUS APPLICATIONS, INCLUDING VARIOUS RADAR SYSTEMS AND GUIDANCE FOR SELF-CONTAINED MUNITIONS. VIABILITY OF MANY MILLIMETER-WAVE SYSTEMS RELIES HEAVILY UPON ACHIEVING THE LOWER COST AND SMALL SIZE AFFORDED BY CIRCUIT INTEGRATION TECHNIQUES. DIELECTRIC-BASED WAVEGUIDES, SUCH AS INSULAR LINE, ARE HIGHLY APPROPRIATE MEDIA FOR SYSTEM INTEGRATION BY FABRICATING ALL CIRCUIT COMPONENTS BY SUITABLE MODIFYING THE BASIC WAVEGUIDE. WIDEBAND MIXERS ARE A VITAL COMPONENT IN MOST MILLIMETER-WAVE SYSTEMS. HOWEVER, INTEGRABLE VERSIONS OF DIELECTRIC BASED WIDEBAND MIXERS HAVE NOT BEEN DEVELOPED AS YET. THE PROPOSED RESEARCH WILL STUDY AND DEVELOP A WIDEBAND LOW-NOISE INSULAR GUIDE BALANCED MIXER. AN INTEGRATED VERSION OF STANDARD CROSS-BAR MIXER IS ENVISIONED. THEORETICAL WORK WILL FOCUS ON THE DESIGN AND CHARACTERIZATION OF THE TRANSITIONS AND MIXER DIODE MOUNT FOR CROSSBAR. ANALYTIC FORMULATION WILL BE USED TO PREDICT AND OPTIMIZE PERFORMANCE. PROTOTYPES WILL BE FABRICATED, AND TESTED, TO VERIFY THEORETICAL RESULTS AND TO ESTABLISH AND OPTIMIZATION PROCEDURE.