This Special Issue of IEEE Microwave and Wireless Components Letters (MWCL) represents the second year that we include selected papers from the IEEE Microwave Theory and Techniques Society (MTT-S) International Microwave Symposium (IMS). The IEEE MTT-S IMS is the MTT Society’s flagship conference and the world’s largest meeting on microwave technology. This year, it is to be held in Denver, CO, USA

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This letter presents a 31-tap analog finite impulse response (FIR) filter capable of synthesizing bandpass, bandstop, and multinull filter responses with continuous center frequency and bandwidth tuning from less than 1 to 20 GHz. The FIR filter delay-lines are realized using Polystrata 3-D air-metal-dielectric technology and are heterogeneously integrated directly on top of a CMOS die using 100- $\mu

Deep learning and artificial intelligence, in general, is advancing scientific discovery and technological inventions through its ability to extract inherently hidden features and map it to output in a highly complex multi-dimensional space. Synthesis of electromagnetic (EM) structures with nearly arbitrary with desired functional properties is such an example of a high dimensional optimization space

This letter presents a transition from a top layer grounded coplanar waveguide (GCPW) to an inner layer air-filled substrate-integrated waveguide (AFSIW). Such type of transition is crucial for the interconnection of top layer surface-mounted radio-frequency integrated circuits (RFICs), toward the integration of complete microwave and millimeter-wave systems taking advantage of the low-cost and high-performance

This work presents a single-chip battery-less neural recorder with 12 on-die microelectrodes. It can be powered wirelessly up to 16 cm away from a horn antenna at 915 MHz and only consumes 104 $\mu \text{W}$ dc power for accessing ten enabled recording sites simultaneously, transmitting at 5 Mb/s. The implantable device integrated with a flexible antenna weighs only 0.43 g. In vivo measurements on

The interferometric radar sensor is superior in detecting the relative displacement motions. The conventional motion-recovery techniques leverage the quadrature $I/Q$ signals to reconstruct the phase information, where accurate calibration of the $I/Q$ signals is a prerequisite. Accurate phase demodulation depends on the precision of signals calibration. Incorrect signals calibration and hardware imperfections

In this letter, we are reporting on the characterization of the on-chip metal–oxide–metal (MOM) capacitors that use “self-inductance cancellation” technique resulting in high-performance operation in radio frequency (RF)/millimeter-wave (mm-wave) regime. The utilized method helps mitigate the mutual magnetic induction between the metal fingers of a MOM capacitor while they are placed in proximity to

In this work, we present a new class of thickness extensional microelectromechanical resonator, the overmoded bulk acoustic resonator (OBAR) for filtering applications in the 5G millimeter wave (mm-wave) spectrum. This resonator operates in a second overtone thickness mode with approximately equal thickness electrodes and piezoelectric layer so that acoustic energy is distributed evenly between the

In this letter, we report on the realization of a two-stage 16-way solid-state power amplifier (SSPA) in the Ka-band. To this end, we describe the design of a high-power amplifier (HPA) in a 100-nm gallium nitride (GaN) process and its integration into a split-block waveguide module. The PA module achieves an output power of more than 7.6 W between 28 and 39 GHz. In conjunction with 16 of these PA

This letter presents a novel load-modulation-based 3rd-order intermodulation distortion (IMD3) cancellation technique for class-B CMOS power amplifiers (PAs). In a class-B PA, the IMD3 generated by the 3rd-order transconductance ( $g_{m3}$ ) and the gain compression have opposite signs, and thus, they can cancel each other at specific bias and loading conditions. The proposed Doherty topology allows

Security vulnerabilities demonstrated in implantable medical devices have opened the door for research into physically secure and low power communication methodologies. In this study, we perform a comparative analysis of commonly used ISM frequency bands and human body communication (HBC) for data transfer from in-body to out-of-body (IBOB). We develop a figure of merit (FoM) that comprises of the

In this letter, a theoretical expression for forward volume spin wave (FVSW) transducer radiation resistance is proposed to encompass the effects of transducer metal thickness. This thickness effect results in a reduction of radiation resistance that scales with metal thickness. The reduction in radiation resistance is especially evident in transducers with metal thicknesses approaching the wavelengths

We present a compact W-band pulsed solid-state amplifier (SSPA) with WR-10 interfaces that delivers a record solid-state output power of 100 W, which is $> 2\times $ previously published waveguide combined W-band SSPAs. The SSPA leverages W-band gallium nitride (GaN) monolithic microwave integrated circuits (MMICs) and low-loss split-waveguide power combining. The amplifier utilizes an innovative modular

We report a monolithic microwave integrated-circuit (MMIC) comb generator capable of producing a repetitive narrow pulse (7.1 ps pulse duration) with sharp edges (4.2 ps falling time). The circuit was designed in a 250 nm indium phosphide (InP) heterojunction bipolar transistor (HBT) technology using differential pairs. We characterized the output signal with a 110 GHz sampling oscilloscope and de-embedded

In this letter, we present a digital transmitter for dual-band narrowband-Internet-of-Things (NB-IoT) applications achieving a large dynamic range with high-speed cartesian RF-DACs requiring less area and consuming low power consumption. The proposed transmitter incorporates integrated output baluns, a reconfigurable digital interpolater-based oversampling for DAC image suppression, or avoidance of

In this letter, air-induced passive intermodulation (PIM) modeling and cancellation schemes are presented in a multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) frequency-division duplexing (FDD) transceiver context. PIM is distortion generated by nonlinear passive devices either within the transmitter chain or outside the transceiver system, as is the case in air-induced PIM. In FDD systems, the PIM products

In this letter, a packaged bandpass filter (BPF) with a compact size of $1.5 \times 1.5 \times 0.315$ mm3 operating at 28 GHz is proposed. This BPF is implemented based on a multilayers printed circuit board (PCB) fabrication process with ultra-thin substrate. With the packaged configuration, the filter can not only reduce the circuit size and component insertion loss, but also eliminate the effect

This letter presents a low-temperature superconductor (LTS)-based ${X}$ - and ${K}$ -band analog ultra-wideband phase shifters realized by coupling an array of radio-frequency superconducting quantum interference devices (rf-SQUIDs) to a microwave transmission line (TL). The proposed device is realized using MIT-LL SFQ5ee eight-layer niobium-based process. The device is designed by distributing 2256

This work investigates an injection-locked power oscillator inductively coupled to an external resonator for wireless power transfer. The system allows a high transfer efficiency, while ensuring a constant oscillation frequency versus the coupling factor, unlike free-running implementations. An analytical formulation provides insight into the impact of the coupling factor on the locked-operation ranges

This letter reports the first wideband method that: 1) detects both the power and frequency of an arbitrary interferer within a two-octave bandwidth and 2) subsequently deactivates the interferer through a frequency-tunable narrowband bandstop filter (BSF). The entire process can be completed within approximately $1~\mu \text {s}$ . The success of the proposed detection method relies on creating frequency-

Closed-Loop Antenna Impedance Tuning (CL-AIT) is a technique to adaptively reduce the antenna impedance mismatch by monitoring changes in the antenna impedance and adjusting a tunable matching network (or tuner). This work presents a data-driven CL-AIT solution to find the optimal code for configuring the tuner in order to maximize the power transferred to the antenna; it also minimizes the need for

Securing crypto-cores is becoming increasingly difficult with the advent of electro-magnetic (EM) side-channel analysis (EMSCA) and fault injection attacks (FIAs). This letter presents an Ansys high-frequency structure simulator (HFSS)-based simulation framework for EM analysis of an integrated on-chip sensor for detecting EMSCA and FIA and validates the efficacy of an on-chip higher metal layer loop-based

Complex permittivity measurements of irradiated high-resistivity float-zone silicon have been performed in this letter from microwave to millimeter-wave frequencies employing three different resonance techniques. It has been proven that the irradiated silicon exhibits resistivity of the intrinsic silicon at temperatures larger than 295 K and the loss tangent due to phonon absorption reaches about 10−5

GaN-on-Si HEMT technology suffers from RF losses and non-linearities originating from the conductive Si substrate. The understanding and modeling of substrate performance are the keys to enabling next-generation front-end modules. In this letter, we show that when subjected to a chuck bias step, the effective substrate resistivity of a typical $C$ -doped HEMT stack shows a dynamic behavior. Using a

This work presents a compact, concurrent dual-band (36/64 GHz) linear power amplifier in 90 nm SiGe technology. To simultaneously overcome the gain and power limitation of conventional common-emitter (CE) silicon device at mm-wave, the stacked common-base (SCB) topology in SiGe is studied and utilized as PA cell. A highly efficient dual-band output network enables the optimum load-line matching for

A high-integration and low-cost transmitter packaging solution for 0.2-THz system-in-package (SiP) application is newly presented using high-temperature co-fired ceramic (HTCC) technology. To improve 3-D integration, internal vertical air-filled interconnection waveguides buried in the HTCC package are explored and fabricated. A compact MoCu waveguide bandpass filter (BPF) is designed and integrated

In this work, the impact of a large lumped resistor connected to the back-gate (B-G) of an fully depleted silicon-on-insulator (FD-SOI) transistor is studied. A related transition in the frequency responses of output conductance and capacitance is evidenced experimentally by $S$ -parameters measurements in a large frequency range up to 40 GHz. However, present compact model does not correctly reproduce

This letter demonstrates two distributed down-converter monolithic microwave integrated circuits (MMICs). MMIC1 contains a distributed down-conversion mixer and MMIC2 expands MMIC1 by an eight-cell distributed local oscillator (LO) driver amplifier. The letter includes an investigation of the optimal gate width for each of the transistors in the stack of the source-feedback mixer cells. The MMICs are

This letter reports on a 108-GHz bandwidth 0.5- $\mu \text{m}$ InP DHBT analog-multiplexer-driver (AMUX-driver). To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this 2:1 AMUX-driver shows unprecedented 1.9-Vppd 160-GSa/s 160-GBd non-return-to-zero (NRZ) and 2.4-Vppd 100-GSa/s 100-GBd PAM-4 output swings, with very high-quality eye diagrams, without any digital signal processing (DSP) or postprocessing. Up to

We present an approach to image deconvolution in active incoherent millimeter-wave (AIM) imaging. While traditional incoherent imaging systems capture thermal radiation from the scene, AIM imaging uses the transmission of noise signals to increase the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) while maintaining the necessary space–time incoherence required for image reconstruction. Images formed by any imaging technique

This letter proposes a millimeter-wave (mm-wave) RF beamforming transmitter (TX) architecture that employs frequency multipliers (FMs) as frequency up-converters to avoid the challenges associated with the signal and local oscillator (LO) distribution networks that intensify with the increase of operating frequency. The proposed architecture incorporates a single-input– single-output (SISO) digital

Presents a listing of the editorial board, board of governors, current staff, committee members, and/or society editors for this issue of the publication.

Presents the table of contents for this issue of this publication.

These instructions give guidelines for preparing papers for this publication. Presents information for authors publishing in this journal.

We present an exact synthesis procedure for the low-pass prototype of extracted-zero filters. This type of filter has been recently introduced and it allows the realization of a true inline topology with up to two transmission zeros. Compared to other inline (or quasi-inline) solutions, the one here considered is the simplest to dimension and fabricate (the same techniques used for all-pole filters

A novel miniaturized multilayer quarter-mode substrate integrated waveguide (QMSIW) filter with high selectivity and wide stopband is proposed. First, an innovative multilayer dual-mode microstrip resonator is proposed to couple the QMSIW resonators located at the upper and lower substrate layers. The combination of the dual-mode resonator with the two QMSIW cavities leads to a fourth-order filtering

This letter presents a differential ultralow power low-noise amplifier (LNA) with stacked three-stage common-source (CS) amplification cells. A three-coil transformer is developed to boost each stage’s $g_{m}$ and reuse current, which renders high gain, low noise, and low power consumption. The proposed LNA has been implemented in a 28-nm CMOS process and achieves a peak gain of 13.48 dB and a minimum

A 1.9-dB NF K-band phased-array receiver (RX) is presented, which employs the hybrid packaged 65-nm CMOS beamformer and 0.1- $\mu \text{m}$ GaAs LNAs based on the fan-out wafer-level chip-scale packaging (WLCSP) technology. Power-efficient gain and phase tuning blocks are utilized to reduce power consumption. Temperature-healing design methodology is adopted to ensure nearly constant gain response

In this letter, we analyze a capacitive coupler for wireless power transfer (WPT) to intravascular implant devices using a stent that contacts the vessel wall for vasodilation as a power receiver. We focus on the effect of conductivity on the transfer efficiency of capacitive WPT and verify the relationship between the maximum transfer efficiency and conductivity based on an equivalent circuit, including

This work deals with new design techniques of RF to dc converter coupled with commercial dc/dc converters, for efficient wireless power transfer. The dc/dc boost converter operates as current sinks, thus imposing challenging design constraints. We investigate the impact of applying a multi-sine RF input signal on power transfer efficiency, involving a source-pull optimization to maximize RF to dc energy

The high frequency and noise performance ( $T_{\mathrm {MIN}}$ , NFMIN, $R_{n}$ , and $Z_{\mathrm {sopt}}$ ) of SiGe heterojunction bipolar transistors (HBTs) are characterized for the first time from dc and $S$ -parameter measurements up to 70 GHz and from 2 to 400 K. Significantly improved current gain ~10 000, minimum noise temperature, $T_{\mathrm {MIN}}$ (< 1 K below 8.5 GHz), MAG, $f_{T}$ (458

The inverted scanning microwave microscope (iSMM) is a recently developed variety of scanning microprobe microscopes. Similar to a scanning microwave microscope (SMM), the iSMM is sensitive to not only surface structure, but also electromagnetic properties below the surface. Different from the SMM, the iSMM can be converted from any scanning probe microscope, such as an atomic force microscope (AFM)

This letter presents new configurations of stubbed waveguide cavities for the realization of pseudo-elliptic and self-equalized filters. The basic structure consists of a main TE102/TE201 dual-mode cavity that is loaded with a pair of waveguide stubs. The two stubs are located at the top and bottom walls of the cavity while always being parallel and in-line to each other. Such a two-stub arrangement

We present a new and improved formulation of Rytov approximation (RA) using the theory of ray tracing in low loss media for solving the direct scattering problem. The resultant model provides an accurate prediction of wave scattering in the presence of electrically large scatterers with high permittivity and small loss tangent. The high validity range and the straightforward linear formulation of the

In this letter, we report on the development of high-gain WR-1.5 amplifier circuits, utilizing a transferred-substrate InGaAs-on-insulator (InGaAs-OI) high-electron-mobility transistor (HEMT) technology on Si with 20-nm gate length. A six-stage and a nine-stage amplifier circuit are described, which are based on gain cells in cascode configuration. With more than 30 dB of measured gain in the frequency

As the most important organ of human body, heart has many measures and indicators to assess the cardiac function in clinic. Ventricular systolic time intervals (STIs) are of major relevance in providing crucial information regarding cardiovascular state. However, the existing measurement technologies are costly, complicated to operate, and also require contact sensors. Based on the human cardiovascular

The amplitude and width of the ultrashort pulses depend on the performance of the generator’s electronic elements. The usage of step recovery diodes (SRDs) with picosecond switching time can lead to a significant increase in device cost. In this letter, nonlinear transmission line (NLTL) was built and tested using commercial-off-the-shelf components to improve the performance of the generator that

Measurement results of uniaxially anisotropic materials performed with the aid of a plano-concave Fabry–Perot open resonator in the 20–50 GHz frequency range are presented and discussed in this letter. It is shown that a linear polarization of Gaussian modes applied in the characterization allows extracting in-plane complex permittivity of such materials as crystals and foils in a single measurement

A new dual-band balanced to unbalanced (BTU) multilayer filtering magic-T (FMT) based on square substrate integrated waveguide (SIW) cavity is proposed in this letter. Degenerate TE 201 and TE 203 modes are exploited to realize the requested dual-band filtering responses and in-/out-of-phase characteristic. The requested differential-mode (DM) transmission, common-mode (CM) suppression, and port-to-port

This Special Issue is devoted to technical papers on radar and sensor systems in microwave and millimeter-wave bands. Massive technological progress has been made in recent years at the microwave device and component level, enabling new research directions on sophisticated microwave and millimeter-wave systems. Among the most significant fields of application for such systems has been sensor technology

A sub-sampling PLL (SSPLL) employing an adaptive frequency-locked loop (FLL) without static power consumption is proposed in this letter. A new unlock detection mechanism and a configurable PFD are realized in the adaptive FLL. With the new unlock detection mechanism, while the FLL that contains phase detector, divider, and charge pump dissipates no power during the locked steady state, it automatically

This letter presents the design of a state-of-the-art 330-GHz subharmonic mixer (SHM) using planar Schottky diodes. Unlike conventional mixers, the embedded impedances of the diode chip are accurately extracted and then used for direct synthesis of the diode’s peripheral circuit to efficiently design SHMs with good performance. Band-stop filters (BSFs) using symmetrical open stubs are adopted to recycle

In this letter, a new 90° coupler with a symmetric coupled-line structure featuring the use of the tuning multiple floating metals technique is designed, analyzed, and verified for subterahertz (THz) applications; this new coupler was fabricated on the standard Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) 0.18- $\mu \text{m}$ 1P6M CMOS process. With the proposed structure, the impedances of even

This letter describes the design, analysis, and testing of a 28-GHz single-input differential-output (SIDO) low-noise amplifier (LNA) with a noise figure of 2.5 dB, compact size (0.25 mm2), and high gain (22.3 dB). The proposed LNA was fabricated using the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) 65-nm CMOS process. This amplifier contains a two-stage common-source (CS) buffer amplifier for

In this letter, an ultra-broadband rectifier is proposed and tested to get more RF energy from ambient. The rectifier using the Dickson charge pump increases the bandwidth and improves the dc voltage of the output load. The upper branch uses an inductor in series to counteract the capacitance of the imaginary parts of the diode and at the same time acts as a booster circuit to increase the output voltage

In this letter, the modified elliptic low-pass filtering (LPF) matching network (MN) is proposed for harmonic suppression of a wideband gallium nitride (GaN) microwave monolithic integrated circuit (MMIC) power amplifier (PA) at millimeter-wave (mm-wave). To investigate the effectiveness of the method at mm-wave, a three-stage 25–31-GHz GaN MMIC PA is designed using a commercial 150-nm GaN HEMT foundry