14 GHz band GaAs monolithic analogue frequency divider

The development of a prototype monolithic analog frequency divider is described, and its performance measured in the 14 GHz band is reported. The divider is a downconverter with a feedback loop consisting of a balanced mixer, a bandpass filter, and an amplifier. The mixer consists of a pair of Schottky-barrier diodes with impedance matching networks and a 180 deg hybrid ring. The bandpass filter consists of a side-coupled half-wavelength microstrip resonator and two quarter-wavelength side couplers. The amplifier is a two-stage common-source circuit employing half-micrometer gate MESFETs. This divider may be a key in the realization of a very small-size microwave phase-locked loop, which will be a promising candidate for on-board local oscillators in satellite communication systems above X-band.