SBIR-STTR Award

MMIC Cavity Oscillator at 50 and 94 GHz
Award last edited on: 10/24/2007

Sponsored Program
SBIR
Awarding Agency
NASA : GSFC
Total Award Amount
$699,839
Award Phase
2
Solicitation Topic Code
S6.04
Principal Investigator
Ahmed I Khalil

Company Information

Hittite Microwave Corporation (AKA: Hittite Microwave LLC)

2 Elizabeth Drive
Chelmsford, MA 01824
   (978) 250-3343
   usa-east@hittite.com
   www.hittite.com
Location: Multiple
Congr. District: 03
County: Middlesex

Phase I

Contract Number: ----------
Start Date: ----    Completed: ----
Phase I year
2007
Phase I Amount
$99,905
An innovative, ultra low noise, single chip cavity oscillator is proposed. The oscillator is fully integrated on standard MMIC process. It operates in the frequency range of 50 ? 100 GHz with phase noise of -112 at 100 KHz offset. At the core of the oscillator is a rectangular cavity based resonator. To our knowledge, this is the first ever implementation of a waveguide cavity on standard MMIC process. This new technique, will allow the realization of ultra small high performance integrated oscillators for future market demands. In the future, a phase locked oscillator can be implemented on a single chip. The PLO will consist of a cavity oscillator, phase frequency detector, prescaler and a loop filter. All components can be integrated on a standard GaAs HBT process.

Phase II

Contract Number: ----------
Start Date: ----    Completed: ----
Phase II year
2008
Phase II Amount
$599,934
An innovative, ultra-low phase-noise, fully integrated single-chip cavity oscillator is proposed. The cavity is built on a standard MMIC process and has a quality factor of 120 at 50 GHz, and an insertion loss of 7 dB. This proposed technique is very well suited for MMW applications with emphasis on the frequency range 50-100 GHz. The achievable phase noise at 50 GHz is -112 dBc/Hz at 100 KHz offset. This is at least 10dB better than the best fully integrated oscillator reported today. To our knowledge this is the first ever implementation of a waveguide cavity on standard MMIC process. This new technique will allow the realization of ultra-small, high-performance integrated oscillators for future market demands. The oscillator can be readily integrated with digital blocks to form a Phase Locked Oscillator (PLO). The PLO will consist of a cavity oscillator, phase frequency detector, prescaler, and a loop filter. All components can be integrated on InP HBT process.