A 100 GHz grooved circular empty cavity is proposed for the low loss dielectric substrate measurements by the cut-off circular waveguide method in W band. The influence of the excitation holes for the coaxial cable with a small loop are revealed by an FEM based 3D electromagnetic simulator. And also, the diameter of the excitation hole is determined based on the calculated results and the manufacturing accuracy. Then, two kinds of four 100 GHz grooved circular empty cavities are fabricated. Comparative experiments of the cavities with the different excitation holes validate the simulated results. Moreover, the complex permittivity of a PTFE plate is measured using the fabricated four cavities by the cut-off circular waveguide method around 84 GHz. The measured results agree within measurement error about 0.5% for εr and 5% for tanδ. Also, these results accord with results measured by the Whispering-Gallery mode resonator method in 85–110 GHz band. It verifies that the proposed 100 GHz cavity for the cut-off waveguide method is useful for the complex permittivity measurement of low loss dielectric substrates in W band.

Underfill materials are used in a packaging of millimeter wave IC. However, there are few reports for dielectric properties of underfill materials in millimeter wave region. A cut-off circular waveguide method is one of a powerful technique to evaluate precisely complex permittivity in millimeter wave region. This method may be useful not only for low-loss materials, but also for mid-loss ones with loss tangent of 10$^{-2}$ order. In this paper, an evaluation technique based on the cut-off circular waveguide method is presented to measure mid-loss underfill materials. As a result, the relative permittivity $arepsilon_{r}$ and the loss tangent tan$delta$ are in the range of 2.8$sim $3.4 and (1.0$sim$1.6)$ imes10^{-2}$, respectively. Also, the measurement precision is 2.3% for $arepsilon_{r} approx 3$ and 40% for tan$delta approx 10^{-2}$.

This paper presents a measurement method for determining effective conductivity of copper-clad dielectric laminate substrates in the millimeter-wave region. The conductivity is indirectly evaluated from measured resonant frequencies and unloaded Q values of a number of Whispering Gallery modes excited in a circular disk sample, which consists of a copper-clad dielectric substrate with a large diameter of 20-30 wavelengths. We can, therefore, obtain easily the frequency dependence of the effective conductivity of the sample under test in a wide range of frequency at once. Almost identical conductivity is predicted for two kinds of WG resonators (the copper-clad type and the sandwich type) with different field distribution; it is self-consistent and provides the important foundation for the method if not for the alternative method at this moment. We measure three kinds of copper foils in 55-65 GHz band, where the conductivity of electrodeposited copper foil is smaller than that of rolled copper foil and shiny-both-sides copper foil. The measured conductivity for the electrodeposited copper foil decreases with an increase in the frequency. The transmission losses measured for microstrip lines which are fabricated from these substrates are accurately predicted with the conductivity evaluated by this method.

A three-dimensional analysis of Whispering-Gallery modes (W. G. modes) in a coaxial dielectric resonator is proposed and presented. The coaxial dielectric resonator is constructed from a lossy dielectric disk and ring which have diameters of several tens times as large as wavelength. Eigenvalue equations of the W. G. modes are derived rigorously from field expressions and boundary conditions. The resonant frequencies, unloaded Q values and field distributions are calculated numerically from the eigenvalue equations. These calculated results are in good agreement with experimental ones for an X band model. As a result, it is shown that a considerable quantity of modal energy can be confined in a loss-less gap between the disk and ring, and then the unloaded Q value is higher than that of a conventional dielectric disk and ring resonator.

Using a point matching method, we have numerically analyzed resonance frequencies and unloaded Q factor of whispering gallery modes in a millimeter wave region that are well known as an intrinsic mode of a dielectric disk resonator. We express field distributions of the resonance modes by a summation of spherical waves. Tangential electromagnetic fields inside the disk are matched to those outside the disk at appropriate matching points on a boundary. As the result, a 4N 4N (N; number of matching points) determinant is derived as an eigenvalue equation of the disk resonator. Since elements of the determinant are complex numbers, a complex angular frequency is introduced to make a value of the determinant zero. For a location of the matching points, we also introduce a new technique which is derived from a field expression of the whispering gallery modes. Since an azimuthal angle dependence of the field distributions with a resonance mode number m is presented by the associated Legendre function Pnm(cos θ), we define abscissas θi of the matching points as solutions of Pm+2N-1m (cos θ) = 0. Considering the field symmetry, we also modify the eigenvalue equation to a new eigenvalue equation which is expressed (4N - 2) (4N - 2) determinant. From the results of our numerical analysis, we can find that the resonance frequencies and unloaded Q factor well converge for number of matching points N. A comparison of numerical results and experimental ones, in a millimeter wave band (50 - 100 GHz), shows a good agreement with each other. It is found that our analysis is effective for practical use in the same wave band.

This paper describes a small size broadband fractional-N RF synthesizer for an RF test module with a high throughput and multiple resources installed in RF Automated Test Equipment (ATE) systems. The core device is the PLL-LSI composed of the 13-band asymmetrical tournament form voltage-controlled oscillators (VCOs) and the proposed 48-bit ΔΣ modulator with the infinite impulse response (IIR) filter. The single-loop PLL RF synthesizer is constructed in the form of systems in package (SiP) including the PLL-LSI and the active loop filter. The RF synthesizer SiP features a small size of 20mm × 20mm × 3mm, a high frequency resolution of smaller than 50µHz, and a phase noise of better than -110dBc/Hz at offset frequency of 1MHz across a frequency range of 100MHz to 13.4GHz. In addition, a frequency settling time of 150 µs that is faster than our conventional dual-loop PLL synthesizers using the discrete VCOs or the YIG-tuned oscillators (YTOs) is achieved. The synthesizer SiP significantly contributes to the realization of small size, high throughput RF test modules for RF ATEs.

Recently, dynamic power supply voltage techniques, such as an Envelope Elimination and Restoration power amplifier (EER-PA) or Envelope-Tracking Power amplifier (ET-PA), have been attracting much attention because they can maintain high efficiency in large back-off region [1]-[6]. The dynamic power supply voltage techniques cause strong nonlinearity compared to a conventional power amplifier, hence a memoryless Digital Predistortion (DPD) technique is indispensable for these efficiency enhancement techniques. However, the performance of the memoryless DPD is degraded due to the frequency response of the envelope amplifier in the dynamic power supply voltage techniques [7]-[9]. In this paper, we clarify the degradation mechanisms of the memoryless DPD for the EER-PA due to the frequency response of the envelope amplifier based on the results of two-tone tests, and propose an analytical model for improving the performance of the memoryless DPD developed for the EER-PA. In addition, a prototype EER-PA is developed and we demonstrate that the residual distortion of the developed EER-PA with conventional memoryless DPD algorithm is compensated by the new algorithm based on the proposed analytical model. In the two-tone test, third-order intermodulation distortion (IMD3) with a tone spacing from 100 kHz to 4 MHz is improvement by up to 25 dB by the memoryless DPD algorithm based on the proposed model. Measured adjacent channel leakage power ratio (ACPR) of the developed EER-PA is improved from -22.5 dBc to -42.5 dBc in the OFDM signal test with 1.08 MHz bandwidth.

A Chebyshev type bandpass filter using four TM01δ-mode dielectric rod resonators oriented axially in a high-Tc superconductor cylinder is designed with 3 dB bandwidth 36 MHz at 11.958 GHz. The single resonator which contains a Ba (MgTa) O3 ceramic rod of εγ=24 and a YBa2Cu3Oy bulk cylinder is designed to realize temperature coefficient of f0, τf=0 ppm/K at 20 K. The unloaded Q, Qu measured at 20 K is 150,000 which is higher than Qu=100,000 for a TM01δ-mode resonator with a copper cylinder. When the constructed filter is cooled from room temperature to below 50 K, the center frequency shifted only 5 MHz which corresponds to τf=1.5 ppm/K and the insertion loss IL0 at the center freqency reduced from 3.0 dB to about 0 dB, the designed value of which is 0.04 dB, which is too small to be measured accurately.

A millimeter wave BPF constructed from the WG mode dielectric disk resonators is presented. The design chart for the high Q WG mode resonator is obtained from Qu calculation of some WG modes. By using the design chart, high Q WG mode resonator having no influence of unwanted higher order resonances is designed. Designed resonators have different diameter and various Resonance Frequency Separation respectively. A 3 stage maximally flat BPF is constructed so that each resonator may be coupled laterally on the edge of the disk. Designed center frequency is 62.47 GHz and 3 dB bandwidth is 100 MHz. As a result, this BPF has insertion loss of 1.5 dB and some spurious responses which were existed conventional WG mode BPF are reduced considerably.

The millimeter wave bandpass filter using the Whispering-Gallery mode (WG mode) dielectric disk resonators is presented in this paper. A 4 stage maximally flat bandpass filter is constructed with the PTFE disk resonators. For the filter design, the coupling coefficients of this mode in the coupled disk resonators are calculated by an approximated separation of variables method. Furthermore, the external Q values of the disk resonator excited by a dielectric waveguide are investigated experimentally. Designed center frequency is 60 GHz and 3 dB band width is 150 MHz. Furthermore, as an attempt to improve the spurious characteristics, another filter structure which consists of some kinds of dielectric disk is tested. As a result, some spurious responses are reduced considerably.

The millimeter wave filter using two whispering-gallery mode dielectric disk resonators is presented in this paper. The coupling coefficients of dual disk resonators and the external Q values of the single resonator excited by a dielectric waveguide are investigated theoretically and experimentally. A 2-stage bandpass filter which is designed at the center frequency of 69.85 GHz with a bandwidth of 500 MHz shows a low-loss property of 1.8 dB insertion loss.

Recent years, millimeter wave applications for wireless communication have attracted much attention and expected. We focused on an NRD guide and sapphire which have the excellent low loss characteristics in millimeter wave region. In this paper, an NRD guide excited sapphire disk resonator and millimeter wave bandpass filter with narrow bandwidth using proposed resonators were designed and fabricated. As a result, it was realized that the 3-pole bandpass filter with center frequency 58.64 GHz and 3 dB bandwidth 273 MHz. Moreover, its insertion loss was found to be about 1.5 dB.

Whispering-Gallery mode resonator method has been presented for complex permittivity evaluation of low loss dielectric materials in millimeter wave region. As a problem, it has been found that the evaluation error slightly dependens on the frequency for a sample. It comes from approximated analysis which is used in the procedure. In this paper, a mode-matching method is applied to this evaluation technique to have improvement of the measrued results. It is confirmed experimentally that reliability of the presented method is improved for the millimeter wave permittivity measurement.

An image type resonator method is proposed as a method to evaluate precisely the temperature dependence of dielectric material. At first, the temperature coefficients of the resonant frequencies, TCf are measured separately using the shielded dielectric resonators of three types; that is a parallel plate type, and an image type, and a MIC type resonator. Secondly, an intrinsic temperature coefficient of the resonant frequency TCf0, which is defined as the temperature coefficient of a resonant frequency when all the stored energy is confined inside a dielectric, is estimated from these measured TCf. Actually, the TCf0 values of a sapphire and (ZrSn) TiO4 rod are estimated from the TCf values measured for the resonators of three types. As a result, for the parallel plate type, the precision of TCf0 is about 0.1 ppm/. For the image and MIC types, the errors of about 0.5 ppm/ in the TCf0 values arise from the errors in the linear expansion coefficients of the resonators, rather than from the experimental errors in TCf. Then, another image type resonator is designed to estimate TCf0 within error of 0.1 ppm/. In this design, dimensions of the shielding cavity is determined to reduce the influence of the errors in the linear expansion coefficients on precision of the TCf0 estimation. Finally, for a (ZrSn) TiO4 ceramic rod, a TCf0 value estimated from TCf measured for the image type resonator is obtained with accuracy of about0.1 ppm/.