Ka-Band Low Loss and High Power SPDT Switch with Stacked-FET Topology

A compact Ka-band T/R switch with low insertion loss and ultra-high output power is presented. A shunt topology is used to achieve low insertion loss while high output power is obtained by using stacked-FET topology. The switch was fabricated by using 0.15-μm Gallium Arsenide (GaAs) pHEMT technology, with a maximum measured insertion loss of 1.42 dB at 36 GHz. The measured input 1-dB power compression point (P1dB) exceeds 32 dBm. The proposed switch also has a compact size of 1.6 mm × 0.71 mm. To the best of our knowledge, the proposed switch has the lowest insertion loss among the other HEMT switches with the same input P1dB level in Ka-band.