ADVANCED MONOLITHIC GALLIUM-ARSENIDE SWITCH MATRIX

THIS PROJECT IMPLEMENTS A WIDEBAND, INTERMEDIATE FREQUENCY SWITCH MATRIX THROUGH THE APPLICATION OF A MONOLITHIC MICROWAVE INTEGRATED CIRCUIT. HIGHLIGHTS OF THE SWITCH MATRIX ARE A 10 BY 10 MONOLITHIC SUBMATRIX CASCADABLE TO FORM A LARGER MATRIX OF UP TO 100 BY 100 (OR LARGER) CROSSPOINTS, AND A NOVEL ISOLATION STRUCTURE TO OBTAIN LOW CROSSTALK BETWEEN ADJACENT SIGNAL LINES. PHASE I CONCENTRATES ON A DETAILED DESIGN OF THE MATRIX, INCLUDING THE FABRICATION OF A MASK SET NEEDED EXPERIMENTALLY TO VERIFY PREDICTED ISOLATION BETWEEN CHANNELS. INCLUDED IN THE DESIGN PHASE ARE A DETAILED ANALYSIS OF INSERTION LOSS AND ISOLATION OF THE PROPOSED PASSIVE SWITCHES IN BOTH THE 3 BY 3 AND 10 BY 10 SUBMATRIX CONFIGURATIONS. CONSTRUCTION OF AN EXPERIMENTAL SWITCH MATRIX WOULD THEN BE ACCOMPLISHED DURING A PHASE II OF THE PROGRAM. PENDING FURTHER STUDY IN PHASE I, THE IF BAND OF THE MATRIX IS A 4 GHZ, MAKING IT SUITABLE FOR A WIDE RANGE OF APPLICATIONS SUCH AS THE 30/20 GHZ COMMUNICATIONS SATELLITE SYSTEM CURRENTLY UNDER DEVELOPMENT BY NASA. IT ALSO FINDS USE AS AN RF SWITCH MATRIX IN C-BAND SYSTEMS.