A Novel Balanced Frequency Tripler With Improved Power Capacity for Submillimeter-Wave Application

This letter reports on the demonstration of a 204–232-GHz Schottky diode frequency tripler based on the novel balanced configuration, which provides superior power handling to traditional approaches. This tripler adopts a novel balanced configuration, which utilizes a symmetrical circuit to achieve the improved amplitude and phase balance, as well as dc bias without any on-chip capacitor. Thus, this tripler features improved power capacity by multiple diodes and better conversion efficiency. At room temperature, the fabricated tripler exhibits a 22.1% peak conversion efficiency for a nominal input power of around 300–560 mW. This tripler can deliver maximum power of 84.5 mW and 16.2% conversion efficiency for 521-mW input power at 226.8 GHz.