Design of a 0.01GHz–70 GHz high output power signal source module

A 0.01 GHz–70 GHz high output power signal source module is presented in this paper. This module has the advantages of ultra wide operating frequency band, high output power, high purity, small clutter, large power modulation range, and small size, etc. In order to obtain wideband amplitude-adjustable high purity signal, many advanced signal processing technologies are adopted in source module design, including wideband frequency multiplication technology, wideband amplification technology, switch filtering technology, power combining technology, loop control technology, wideband signal combining technology, etc. This source module has two input channels: frequency multiplication input channel and low-frequency input channel. Frequency doubling MMIC chip and amplifying MMIC chip used in this source module are designed by our research group, and their operating frequency ranges are 18GHz–36GHz and 37GHz–70 GHz respectively. In order to reduce harmonic wave and obtain high purity signal in frequency multiplication channel, microwave signal filtering in different frequency bands is adopted; in order to increase output power, dual-way power combining technology is adopted in this high power source module. The source module is designed, manufactured and tested. Test results show that: source module output power is higher than 20dBm in the whole operating frequency band of 0.01GHz–70 GHz; in frequency multiplication channel, sub-harmonic wave is better than 80dBc and harmonic wave is better than 60dBc; source module's power modulation range is larger than 70 dB; low-frequency straight-through channel's insertion loss is less than 3.9 dB. The 0.01 GHz–70 GHz ultra-wideband and high output power signal source module has been applied to RF and microwave test instruments, such as VNAs, signal generators and spectrum analyzers, etc.