A high dynamic range power sensor based on GaAs MMIC process and MEMS technology

•A new cascaded microwave power sensor is proposed for improved dynamic range application.•The details of impedance compensation including calculation, simulation and experiments are researched in this paper.•The lumped equivalent circuit models of the loaded resistors for low frequency and high frequency are also presented.

This paper reports a high dynamic range power sensor based on GaAs process and MEMS technology. The proposed sensor consisted of the terminating-type sensor and the coupling-type sensor. The former measures low power while the latter is for high power detection. This device is designed and fabricated by GaAs MMIC process. In order to optimize microwave performance, impedance compensating technology by increasing the slot width of the CPW transmission line is developed. Related calculation and simulation are also presented in this paper. The microwave performance test reveals that the return loss is close to −28 dB@8 GHz, −27 dB@10 GHz and −26 dB@12 GHz, respectively. The microwave power response experiment is investigated from 1 mW to 150 mW. For the incident power less than 100 mW, the terminating-type sensor operates and the measured sensitivity is about 0.095 mV/mW@8 GHz, 0.088 mV/mW@10 GHz and 0.084 mV/mW@12 GHz, respectively. Related lumped equivalent circuit models of the loaded resistors are developed to explain the loss induced by the frequency of the signal. For the incident power with the improved dynamic range from 100 mW to 150 mW, the coupling-type sensor is adopted and the measured sensitivity is about 9.2 μV/mW@8 GHz, 8.6 μV/mW@8 GHz and 9.0 μV/mW@12 GHz, respectively.