Design and Implementation of an S/C Band Tile-Type TR Module

An ultra-wide band tile-type Transmit/Receive module (T/R module) with the characteristics of high integration, small volume, light-weight is presented in this paper. The proposed T/R module can realize transmit/receive signal amplification, amplitude and phase control. In electrical design, two 2-channels multi-function MMICs (MFC) are applied to provide the amplitude and phase control of RF signal. And it is remarkable that large, the MFC is a three-dimensional (3D) chip which achieved by stacking digital circuits on top of the microwave circuits to increase densities. And 4 RF front modules are applied to realize transmit/receive signal amplification. The designed T/R module provides above 30dB of receive gain with Noise Figure (NF) better than 2.5dB, and up to 40dBm of pulsed power with about 35% of power added efficiency (PAE). In mechanical design, a newly assembly method of 3D vertical interconnection technology in the highly integrated packaging TR module is proposed. Signals transmission between the proposed TR module and the external system are achieved by fuzz-button connectors to form a vertical interconnection structure. The designed 4-channels T/R module is about 38mm38mm*8mm, and the total weight is 30g.