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A wideband 220 GHz subharmonic mixer based on monolithic integration technology is proposed in this paper. It features 12 Mm-thick GaAs membrane with anti-parallel Schottky diodes working at THz band monolithically integrated on the membrane. The optimization principles of low-parastics Schottky diodes and the fabrication process of GaAs MMIC membrane diodes are elaborated. To realize optimum performances of the mixer, the dimensions of the integrated diodes and the matching network are optimized with harmonic balance simulation and load-pull techniques. An IF low pass filter with compact microstrip resonance cell (CMRC) configuration and an improved perpendicular coax-to-microstrip connection are used to realize wide IF band. The measured results show that the single sideband (SSB) conversion loss of this mixer is less than 10.5 dB from 185 to 255 GHz with fixed IF of 1 GHz, while the double sideband (DSB) noise temperature is better than 1400 K in this frequency range. Using fixed local oscillator (LO) frequency of 110 GHz, the measured SSB conversion loss is 7.4-10.7 dB within 185-255 GHz, indicating the good performances of the mixer with IF from DC to 35 GHz. The GaAs monolithic integration technology provides an approach for massive manufacturing of identical circuits and the proposed mixer with wideband characteristics will be applied in 220 GHz imaging systems in the near future.

In this paper, the development of two high power 220 GHz frequency triplers is proposed. The GaAs Schottky diodes with six nodes are applied to realize high efficiency 220 GHz tripler, while the application of GaN Schottky diodes with eight nodes is another attempt to improve power handling of the 220 GHz tripler. To reduce thermal effect of high power multipliers, the AlN substrates with high thermal conductivity are applied to provide better heat dissipation at the diode areas. A combination of electrical and thermal model of the Schottky diodes is established while the optimization of 220 GHz triplers are realized with 3D electromagnetic (EM) simulation and harmonic balanced simulation. Good agreement is achieved between the simulated results based on electro-thermal model and measured performances of the triplers. At room temperature, peak efficiency of the tripler based on GaAs Schottky diodes is 17.8%, while the maximum output of the tripler is 38.2 mW with 300 mW input power. As for the 220 GHz GaN Schottky diode tripler, measured results show that the maximum power handling is beyond 400 mW. The peak efficiency and maximum output are 4.7% and 18.4 mW, respectively. The proposed methods of developing high power multipliers can be applied in higher frequency band in the future.