168 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MICROWAVE THEORY AND TECHNIQUES, VOL. 61, NO.

1, JANUARY 2013

Tunable Broadband MMIC

Active Directional Coupler
Byul Hur, Member, IEEE, and William R. Eisenstadt, Senior Member, IEEE

AbstractThis paper presents a tunable broadband monolithic

microwave integrated circuit (MMIC) active directional coupler
that demonstrates tuned coupling gains (from 3 dB to dB) and
tuned center frequencies. The active directional coupler consists
of two broadband near 90 phase shifters, two amplifiers between
these phase shifters, and varactors at the connection nodes of the
phase shifters and the amplifiers. It was designed and fabricated in
a 130-nm process. For a 3-dB coupling gain, the 10-dB directivity
bandwidth is 2.3 GHz (from 5.5 to 7.8 GHz). The amplitude imbal-
ance is 3 dB dB, the phase imbalance is 180 , and the
noise figure is less than 8 dB in the range of 4 to 9 GHz. The return
losses are better than 19 dB and the insertion loss is less than 1.2 dB
in the range of 4 to 9 GHz. The measured IP1 dBs for 3-dB and 0-dB
coupling gains at 6.7 GHz are 0.3 dBm and 1.8 dBm, respectively.
The supply voltage is 1.2 V. The measured power consumptions at
3-dB, 0-dB, -dB, and -dB coupling gains are 22 mW, 6 mW,
Fig. 1. Block diagram of a tunable broadband active directional coupler.
3 mW, and 1 mW, respectively. The core chip area, including two
on-chip DC bias inductors, is 470 m 250 m.
Index TermsBuilt-in self-test, directional couplers, microwave
integrated circuits, microwave measurements, reflectometry. directional couplers. However, they may occupy less chip area
and be highly reconfigurable, for example, by using transistors
and tunable active inductors [12]. A. M. Young filed for a patent
I. INTRODUCTION showing two, three, four, and five-stage hybrid active couplers,

A DIRECTIONAL coupler is a four port device that has an

input port, a through port, a coupled port, and an isolation
port. The through port transmits signals from the input port, the
coupled port transmits forward waves of the signals, and the iso-
lation port transmits backward (reflected) waves of the signals
[1]. The amplitudes of signals at a through and a coupled port
are generally unequal for directional couplers, whereas the am-
plitudes of signals at these ports are equal for hybrid couplers.
Directional couplers have been utilized in many different
forms. Coupled lines are commonly used in directional couplers
such as single-section coupled line couplers and multi-section
coupled line couplers [2], [3]. Since H. J. Riblet published
papers associated with modern hybrid couplers in 1948 and
1952, hybrid couplers have been developed in many different
forms [4], [5]. Examples of hybrid couplers include branch-line
couplers and multibranch line couplers [6], [7]. Other types of
directional couplers include microstrip couplers and lumped
element couplers. The microstrip coupler was developed by J.
Lange in 1969 [8]. The lumped element couplers have been
used in monolithic microwave integrated circuits (MMICs) [9].
Couplers using transistors are called active directional cou-
plers [10], [11]. Currently, they are not used as much as passive
Manuscript received May 28, 2012; revised October 18, 2012; accepted Oc-
tober 23, 2012. Date of publication December 20, 2012; date of current version
January 17, 2013. This work was supported by SRC Global Research Collab-
oration (GRC) program and Freescale Semiconductor (Theme: 1663.001 and
1836.026, January 2009June 2010).
The authors are with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering,
University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611 USA (e-mail: byulmail@ufl.edu;
wre@tec.ufl.edu).
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TMTT.2012.2228218
and other types of multi-stage couplers [13]. In this paper, a new
tunable broadband active directional coupler is introduced.
The block diagram of the proposed tunable broadband active
directional coupler is shown in Fig. 1. A. M. Youngs two-stage
hybrid active coupler may look similar to the proposed tunable
active directional coupler. However, the proposed tunable active
directional coupler uses actively variable transconductances un-
like the hybrid active directional coupler using the transconduc-
tance that equals 1 as described in the patent [13].
The proposed tunable active directional coupler is also able to
work as a hybrid coupler by setting the same amplitude outputs
at a coupled port and through port. However, the transconduc-
tance in this case is governed by different gain equations and
calculations that are introduced in Section III. For example, if
it is assumed that 1) the ports are terminated by 50 , 2) the
transconductances are the same, and 3) the elements are ideal
and lossless, then each transconductance can be calculated as ei-
ther 20 mA/V or 40 mA/V depending on an input port or voltage
source definition.
The new tunable active directional coupler employs addi-
tional tunable radio frequency (RF) elements to provide the
extra re-configurability. Furthermore, near 90 phase delays
are used in this tunable active directional coupler. Near 90
phase delays are used because the phase delays do not need to be
90 exactly in order to obtain a desired cancellation level. The
combination of the tuning elements and practical use of near 90
phase delays (which is discussed in Section II) make this tun-
able active directional coupler unique.
The tunable broadband MMIC active directional coupler is
suitable for built-in self-test (BiST) and on-chip RF applications

0018-9480/$31.00 2012 IEEE

HUR AND EISENSTADT: TUNABLE BROADBAND MMIC ACTIVE DIRECTIONAL COUPLER 169

due to its compact size, high performance, and high re-config-

urability. While traditional passive directional couplers may re-
quire extra amplifiers at a coupled or isolation port, this active
directional coupler may not require extra amplifiers because it
includes internal variable amplifiers for both a coupled and an
isolation port. Moreover, it sustains broadband bandwidth op-
erations while tuning. Traditional tunable directional couplers
may use variable coupling capacitors [14]. Since the values of
the coupling capacitors have a great effect on the circuits oper-
ations, it is very challenging to make circuits sustain broadband
bandwidth operations while the values of coupling capacitors
are being tuned.
The proposed tunable broadband MMIC active directional
coupler has been fabricated in a 130-nm 8-metal process, and
test measurements have been performed. This paper includes Fig. 2. Schematic of the proposed tunable broadband MMIC active directional
details for the new tunable MMIC active directional coupler. coupler.

II. OPERATION OF TUNABLE BROADBAND

ACTIVE DIRECTIONAL COUPLER preferable to have a reasonable distance to have good isolation
between the RF lines. However, coupling effects between the
The block diagram of the active directional coupler is shown
RF lines may need to be included, where they come into play
in Fig. 1. The active directional coupler employs two amplifiers,
significantly in the frequency range of interest.
near 90 phase delays, and varactors. The near 90 phase delays
For traditional passive directional couplers, an input port can
can be implemented as phase shifters, delay lines, or lines
be any of four ports. However, the input port of the proposed
to introduce the near 90 phase delays. The active directional
active directional coupler (Fig. 1) should be either or .
coupler employs two amplifiers that pass forward waves from
Exact 90 phase delays are not required for the proposed ac-
(or ) to or but block backward (reverse) waves
tive directional coupler. A desired level of cancellation or the
from (or ) to (or ).
maximum cancellation can be achieved even where the phase
If we consider only one case of setting as an input port
delays are not exactly 90 . For example, the near 90 phase
to describe the circuit behavior more easily, both the signals
delays represents the range of the phase delay such as 85 to
at and are the combined signals from through both
105 . The range is the phase tolerance for the desired directivity,
amplifiers ( and ).
since it offers freedom to add more capacitance to the active
There are two signal paths to from associated with each
directional coupler. Therefore, we can place extra varactors as
of two amplifiers. If we express them as the delays of the input
tuning elements as shown in Fig. 1. In this configuration, rea-
signals, one of the paths is the delay associated with the delay
sonable signal cancellation at can be observed while tuning.
from to , and the other path is the sum of the delays
These tuning elements (varactors) are located at the connection
associated with the delays 1) from to , 2) from
nodes between phase shifters and amplifiers. Four varactors are
to , and 3) from to . If we assume 1) the
shown and drawn as dotted lines in Fig. 1. The polarity of these
phase delays and are the same as and 2) the
varactors can be changed. However, it is recommended that the
and are both , total delays of the signals associated
proper range of the control voltage should be set in order to
with these two paths can be derived as
avoid pulling unwanted currents out of the varactor diodes.
(1) The ports can be terminated by arbitrary impedances. Al-
though not shown, the ports are assumed to be terminated.
Since the signals at from are combined signals through
both paths, then the combined signals cancel out each other be- III. DESIGN OF TUNABLE BROADBAND MMIC
cause they are 180 out of phase. ACTIVE DIRECTIONAL COUPLER
Traditionally, the operation of directional couplers is ex- A schematic of the proposed tunable broadband MMIC ac-
pressed in terms of the relationship between two RF lines, tive directional coupler is shown in Fig. 2. It is designed using
and it usually includes complex mathematical derivations a 130-nm 8-metal process. For this proposed tunable active di-
such as even/odd mode analysis. The description may include rectional coupler, only NMOS transistors are used instead of
mathematical derivations associated with physical or parasitic bipolar transistors. However, bipolar transistors could be sub-
coupling capacitors. However, the proposed active directional stituted for a better performance.
couplers can be understood in an intuitive and easier way as The component values for the proposed active directional
described above. coupler are listed in Table I. In this design, , and
In traditional directional couplers, it is preferable to place two are not physically present in the circuit because the total
RF lines very close to each other to obtain good coupling coeffi- parasitic capacitances at each node are already higher than
cients. At the same time, isolation effects are needed. Therefore, or in this particular active directional coupler. However,
the distance between the RF lines is a very important factor. designers can place physical capacitors when they are needed.
However, the active directional coupler is less sensitive to the In order to use less chip area, two phase shifters are imple-
distance of the RF lines because gain and isolation of the ampli- mented as lumped elements such as two inductors and three ca-
fiers have more impact on those parameters. In fact, it is rather pacitors each. They are located between and , and and
170 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MICROWAVE THEORY AND TECHNIQUES, VOL. 61, NO. 1, JANUARY 2013

TABLE I voltage gain at from a signal source connected to the

COMPONENT VALUES from can be derived as the sum of the gain of two amplifiers
as follows:

(5)

If 1) the ports are terminated by the same impedance and 2)

the transconductances are the same, the voltage gain can be de-
rived as
. In Fig. 2, one of the phase shifters consists of two induc-
tors ( and ) and three capacitors , and (6)
the other one consists of and . These
phase shifters introduce near 90 phase delays. If we assume where and
that and , the transfer function of a . It is worth mentioning that proper impedance transforma-
phase shifter from to can be derived as (2) at the bottom tions are recommended to obtain a relevant voltage gain from a
of the page, where forward gain -parameter, and ports are usually terminated by
, and R is the terminated impedance. The phase from the 50 .
transfer function can be derived as phase , One of the primary characteristics of a traditional directional
where the real part for the phase equation is coupler is a coupling factor, which is where
is the input power at the input port, and is the output
(3) power at the coupled port, respectively. In this paper, coupling
gain is defined as
and the imaginary part is
(7)
(4) The coupling gain makes it convenient to describe the cou-
pling effect as a gain expression rather than attenuation. Unlike
The phase of the phase shifter can be estimated by putting passive directional couplers, it is not unusual for active direc-
component values shown in Table I into the (2). For example, tional couplers to have a negative coupling factor which means
the derived values of the phase at 2.4 GHz and 7.4 GHz are input signals are amplified to an output port. Moreover, the cou-
and , respectively. The phase is attenuated in an almost pling gain is directly related to the total voltage gain of ampli-
linear fashion as the frequency increases. The phase deviation fiers. For example, for this active directional coupler, if we as-
per frequency can be defined as a ratio of the deviation of the sume the ports are terminated by the same impedance , the
phase and frequency, which is /GHz. The phase deviation coupling gain in dB from the input port to the coupled port can
per frequency is closely associated with the bandwidth of the be derived as
active directional coupler. It is preferable to have low absolute
value of the phase deviation per frequency to achieve broad-
band active directional couplers. The bandwidth of the active (8)
directional coupler is set by the phase tolerance from the 90
phase delay and the desired level of directivity defined by test The coupling gain can be directly measured through gain
engineers. It is worth pointing out that transmission lines can measurements. They are shown in Section V. Since we have
be used for the near 90 phase delays. Transmission lines take assumed that all components are lossless, the coupling gain may
less chip area as the targeted frequency gets higher. Therefore, get smaller than the one from the gain equation.
transmission lines can be a better choice in millimeter wave ap- It can be observed that this active directional coupler looks
plications. similar to a two-stage distributed amplifier. Distributed ampli-
Common-source amplifiers are one of the basic field effect fiers use transmission line theory and the circuit design tech-
transistor (FET) amplifiers. The voltage gain of the ampli- niques by dividing the gate capacitance using multiple ampli-
fier is the multiplication of the transconductance and output fiers [15]. Distributed amplifiers have been developed on a chip
impedance. In order to calculate the voltage gain, let us assume using lumped element approaches [16], [17]. If we investigate
1) the components and lines in Fig. 2 are ideal and lossless, the signals from an input to coupled port, it can be observed
and 2) and are terminated by and that the active directional coupler works in a similar manner to
, respectively. Also, 3) and are the transconduc- a two-stage distributed amplifier because it has lumped RF lines
tances of the transistor and , respectively. Then, the and two amplifiers.

(2)
HUR AND EISENSTADT: TUNABLE BROADBAND MMIC ACTIVE DIRECTIONAL COUPLER 171

The noise figure for distributed amplifiers has been investi-

gated for many years. The noise figure equation for n-stage dis-
tributed amplifiers was published in 1985 by C. S. Aitchison
[18]. We can derive the noise figure equation for a two-stage
distributed amplifier and this active directional coupler from an
input to coupled port by re-writing his noise figure equation [18]
assuming . The noise figure (F) is

Fig. 3. Chip photo of the proposed tunable broadband MMIC active directional
coupler using a 130-nm process.

is the sum of the capacitance of , and other associated

(9) parasitic capacitances. Therefore, larger equivalent values of ca-
pacitors can be used without using . Likewise, larger
can be used without using . In Fig. 2, there are capac-
where and itors . They represent the parasitic capacitances at
gate- and drain-line characteristic impedances, each associated port including the capacitances from RF pads.
, noise parameter R and P found Varactors are located as shown in Fig. 2. Placing these extra
in [19] are numeral factors by drain current, and varactor diodes provide higher re-configurability and tuning for
targeted RF characteristics such as matching, coupling factor,
isolation, and center frequency. When the varactors are used,
the tuning bandwidth and operating frequency range are closely
(10) related to the maximum and minimum capacitance variations
of the varactors. In order to achieve larger tuning, the varactor
The noise figure for this active directional coupler was mea- diode sizes need to be increased, which results in the increase of
sured as shown in Section V. The section includes a practical the minimum capacitance of the varactor diodes. In this tunable
noise measurement configuration and two-port noise measure- active directional coupler, the varactor diodes are designed to
ment method for four-port couplers. compensate for unwanted RF frequency characteristic changes
Inductors ( and ) are used for biasing transistors. In and process variations. Therefore, varactor diodes of the active
this design, multilayer inductors were employed. The multilayer directional coupler are designed to be suitable for fine tuning.
inductors utilize many metal layers to obtain large inductances. However, the tuning bandwidth is not wide. In order to obtain
They occupy a small chip area. However, the elements usually the wider tuning bandwidth, the varactor diode sizes can be in-
have large loss because the thicknesses of some metal layers are creased. In this case, however, the entire operating frequency of
not large. the active coupler may be pushed down.
For , the large loss of the multilayer inductors does not
play a big role because there is an insignificant current con- IV. LAYOUT
sumption. However, for , the large bias current across the
transistors can flow through this inductor, which causes the no- The chip photo is shown in Fig. 3. The chip has been fab-
ticeable voltage drop across the inductor. Hence, it requires the ricated using a 130-nm 8-metal process. The chip area is 1280
use of higher bias voltages of through the on-chip inductor m 550 m. However, the core chip area, including on-chip
as the current consumption gets higher. DC bias inductors, is 470 m 250 m excluding RF and DC
When a bias condition such as is changed, may need pads, on-chip DC bypass capacitors, and electrostatic discharge
to be modified accordingly to provide a proper drain voltage (ESD) protection circuits.
level of the amplifiers. Two RF lines between and , and and sustain the
Alternatively, bias voltages can be supplied directly through significant distance from each other as mentioned earlier. The
the ports. In this case, the bias voltages through and are distance between RF lines is about 88 m. Four inductors can
called and , respectively. The voltage level of can be found between RF lines, which are symmetric inductors.
stay as constant, while is tweaked to achieve different gains
from the active directional coupler. V. MEASUREMENT
The on-chip inductors can be connected to proper bias volt- The tunable broadband MMIC active directional coupler is a
ages or they can simply be left open, depending on whether users four-port device on a chip. In order to perform on-chip four-port
want to apply bias voltages through internal inductors or directly measurements, a two-port vector network analyzer (VNA) can
through ports. be utilized by performing multiple two-port measurements with
There are two capacitors ( and ) connected to the rotation of two-port external terminations. However, this
and , respectively. Normally, a gate capacitance is larger may cause measurement errors because RF probes may need to
than a drain capacitance. The purpose of the capacitors ( and be lifted and landed again multiple times. However, a four-port
) that are connected to the drain nodes is to reduce this dif- VNA can reduce these measurement errors. Also, applying var-
ference. The total capacitance at the drain of the transistor ious control voltages can be repetitive, and may cause additional
172 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MICROWAVE THEORY AND TECHNIQUES, VOL. 61, NO. 1, JANUARY 2013
Fig. 4. Automated test set up for the tunable MMIC active directional coupler.
measurement errors. Therefore, the automated test system using
a four-port VNA was developed as shown in Fig. 4. The test
program controls the VNA over the general purpose interface
bus (GPIB), and the data acquisition system (DAQ). The pro-
gram was developed using the C programming language and
matrix laboratory (MATLAB) program. The test program com-
mands the DAQ to apply different bias and control voltages to
the chip. Then, the test program commands the VNA to perform
a four-port measurement, and to send the -parameter dataset
back to the test program. The test program also repeats the pro-
cedure multiple times for different control voltages.
The test was performed using the MMIC active directional
coupler. In this test session, the test program collected 400 four-
port -parameter datasets for different control voltages fully au-
tomatically. This is for one of the four selected coupling gain
cases. Therefore, the test program collected a total of 1600 four-
port -parameter datasets. Also, the entire test sessions had been
repeated several times for verification. An extra digital power
supply for power lines was used separately, simply to protect
the DAQ from possible overcurrent damage. Also, for power
measurements, the four-port VNA performed source and re-
ceiver calibrations for all RF ports. The fine measurement re-
sults shown in this section came from the extra efforts in the de-
velopment of the automated measurement system. This is im-
portant because the automated test system and exhaustive test
patterns help readers to have more confidence in fine differences
(as shown in this section) that they were not from measurement
errors such as manual repeated jobs, re-landing probes, or ap-
plying wrong control voltages.
Measured -parameters for a 3-dB coupling gain are shown
in Fig. 5, where a coupling gain is 3 dB, the bias voltages of
and are 0.65 V and 2.02 V, respectively. The coupled
port has a 3-dB gain compared to the through port
while the through port has roughly a 1.2-dB insertion loss
from the input port at 6.7 GHz. The measured graph
demonstrates that the return losses for the input port are better
than 19 dB from 4 to 10 GHz, and the measured graph
indicates dB at 6.7 GHz.
Directivity for a 3-dB coupling gain is shown in Fig. 6. The
directivity is obtained by calculating the difference between
Fig. 5. Measured S-parameters for a 3-dB coupling gain ( V and
V).
Fig. 6. Measured directivity for a 3-dB coupling gain.
(Coupled) and (Isolation) in dB. The result shows that the
active directional coupler has directivity of roughly 17.5 dB at
6.7 GHz. If an operational frequency range is defined by 10-dB
directivity, it can be inferred that this coupler works in the range
of 5.5 to 7.8 GHz, and the relative bandwidth is 2.3 GHz.
Fig. 7 illustrates the magnitude and phase plots for the cou-
pled and through port. The gain of the coupled port from the
through port is 3 dB at 6.7 GHz, and it varies from 2.5 dB at 5.5
GHz to 3.5 dB at 7.8 GHz. Amplitude imbalance is the power
difference between two output ports. The amplitude imbalance
is normally used for hybrid couplers to estimate the power dif-
ference between two output ports. However, it is extended to
be used for this active directional coupler, which is the absolute
value of the power difference in dB. Therefore, the amplitude
imbalance for this active directional coupler can be derived as 3
dB dB. The phase plot shows 180 difference between the
coupled and through port at 5.5 GHz and the phase varies from
175 at 4 GHz to 185 at 7.8 GHz. The phase imbalance is the
differential phase shift between two output ports, which can be
inferred as 180 .
The tuned coupling gains can be obtained by setting different
sets of bias voltages. Fig. 8 shows measured -parameters in the
selected bias conditions, where the coupling gains are 3 dB, 0
dB, dB, and dB at 6.7 GHz. The sets of the voltages
and are listed in Fig. 8. The lines are drawn in black for 3
dB, and the colors of the lines changed gradually to light gray
HUR AND EISENSTADT: TUNABLE BROADBAND MMIC ACTIVE DIRECTIONAL COUPLER 173

Fig. 7. Measured magnitude (Upper graph) and phase (Lower graph) plots of Fig. 9. Measured magnitude (Upper graph) and phase (Lower graph) plots of
(Coupled) and (Through) for a 3-dB coupling gain. and for the selected bias voltages.

frequencies for 3-dB, 0-dB, -dB, and -dB coupling gains

are 6.7 GHz, 6.9 GHz, 7.0, and 7.1 GHz, respectively. In this
case, the tuning frequency bandwidth is inferred as 0.4 GHz.
To give more insights, the magnitude and phase plots for
and for 3-dB, 0-dB, -dB, and -dB coupling gains are
shown in Fig. 9. Although it is difficult to obtain pure measure-
ments for phase shifters because they are embedded in the cir-
cuit, the performance for the phase shifters can be estimated by
investigating and . The and measurements can
be considered as the phase shifters between and and
and , respectively, where they include extra parasitics from
the RF pads, ESD protection circuits, and amplifiers, which re-
sults in additional losses and delays. The maximum and min-
imum of the magnitudes of and at 6.7 GHz are
Fig. 8. Measured -parameters in the selected bias conditions where coupling
and dB, and and dB, where the deviations
gains are 3 dB, 0 dB, dB and dB. are 0.11 dB and 0.65 dB, respectively. They may look very large
because of the Y-axis scale on the graph. However, in fact, the
deviation is small. The maximum and minimum of the phase
colors for 0 dB, dB, and dB. Additionally, in order to see of at 6.7 GHz is and , and the difference
the difference better, , and families are drawn between the maximum and minimum of the phase of at 6.7
as dotted, short dash, solid, and long dash lines, respectively. GHz is negligibly small. The phase difference between and
In Fig. 8, where the coupling gain is 0 dB, the and suggests the parasitic capacitance difference between the
graphs overlap each other. This is where the active coupler gate and the drain node although the compensation capacitors
works in a similar fashion to an active hybrid coupler. Likewise, ( and ) were already included. The difference in para-
where the coupling gains are dB or dB, the active di- sitic capacitances results in the phase difference of 5.5 at 6.7
rectional coupler works similar to a traditional 3-dB coupler or GHz. As mentioned previously, the phase deviations per fre-
6-dB coupler. The varactor control voltages for these coupling quency for and from 6 to 7 GHz can be derived, which
gains were controlled to match the voltages at each associated are /GHz and /GHz.
port. It is observed that coupling gains, center frequencies, and As discussed earlier, the bias voltages can be applied directly
return losses have an effect on each other at some level as the through input and output ports. Fig. 10 shows the similar mea-
bias conditions are changed. For example, the center frequency surements where is applied through and is applied
gets shifted higher as the coupling gain gets lower. The center through . Comparing Figs. 8 and 10, the results from Fig. 10
174 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MICROWAVE THEORY AND TECHNIQUES, VOL. 61, NO. 1, JANUARY 2013

Fig. 12. Noise figure test setup.

Fig. 10. Measured -parameters in the selected bias conditions where coupling
gains are 3 dB, 0 dB, dB, and dB, where and are bias voltages
applied through and , respectively.

Fig. 13. Measured noise figure for a 3-dB coupling gain.

Fig. 11. Measured S-parameters in a nominal bias condition where varactor

control voltages, , and , are tuned differently.

agree well with the results from Fig. 8, which indicate that tran-
sistor biasing directly through ports works similar to transistor
biasing through on-chip bias inductors. Therefore, users can
choose either of the bias techniques, and they can expect to see
similar results and operations.
As discussed previously, the control voltages of the varactors
were swept in many voltage sets automatically by the test pro-
gram. In order to analyze this extra tuning effect, three tuning Fig. 14. Comparison between simulation and measurement from 4 to 9 GHz
results are selected as shown in Fig. 11, where the bias voltages for a 3-dB coupling gain.
and stay constant for a 3-dB coupling gain. The sets
of the varactor control voltages are listed in Fig. 11. By tuning
the varactor voltage levels, center frequencies of the directivity extra tuning bandwidth can be extended to all other cases such
and matching impedances were tuned, while the 3-dB coupling as 0-dB, -dB, -dB, and so forth.
gain was well sustained. Based on 10-dB directivity, it can be Since the active directional coupler works as a two-stage
inferred that the operational frequency is from 5.4 to 7.7 GHz, distributed RF amplifier from an input to coupled port, the
and the center frequency is 6.6 GHz in one case. For another noise figure can be obtained, which is derived and discussed
case, the operational frequency is from 5.6 to 7.9 GHz, and its in Section III. However, in order to measure the noise figure,
center frequency is 6.8 GHz. Therefore, the frequency tuning the test setup must be configured as a two-port measurement
bandwidth for a 3-dB coupling gain is 0.2 GHz from 6.6 to 6.8 system. In this paper, the noise figure was measured from
GHz. The control voltages were tweaked in a small range but an input to a coupled port as shown in Fig. 12. The through
the practical range that was from 0 to 1.8 V. The gain of the and isolation ports were terminated by external 50- at each
HUR AND EISENSTADT: TUNABLE BROADBAND MMIC ACTIVE DIRECTIONAL COUPLER 175

TABLE II
CHIP PERFORMANCE AND LISTS OF VARIOUS PUBLISHED DIRECTIONAL AND HYBRID COUPLERS

connector of the RF probes. The noise figure was measured

from 4 to 9 GHz for a 3-dB coupling gain using a spectrum
analyzer (with noise figure option) and a noise source. The test
system was calibrated using a through pattern of an impedance
standard substrate (ISS) before taking the noise figure measure-
ment as shown in Fig. 13. The noise figure is below 8 dB from
4 to 9 GHz. The spectrum analyzer recorded about 100 data
points from 4 to 9 GHz using an averaging option.
The comparison between measurement and simulation is
shown in Fig. 14. The simulation was performed including
equivalent circuit models for parasitic elements. The measure-
ment and simulation show good agreement. The and in
simulation show the slightly better return loss and cancellation
than in actual measurement. Overall, these good agreements
result from the good active and passive RF models, and the
extra effort in describing the interconnect models including the
equivalent circuit models for parasitic elements. Fig. 15. 1-dB compression point measurements for a 3-dB coupling gain and
Unlike a conventional passive directional coupler, the power 0-dB gain coupling gain at 6.7 GHz.
measurements must be performed at the coupled port. IP1 dB
was measured using a network analyzer. In order to ensure
power levels provided by a vector network analyzer (VNA), -dB, and -dB coupling gains were 1.86 V, 1.44 V, 1.32 V,
source and receiver calibrations were performed at a constant and 1.28 V. The measured power consumptions were 22 mW, 6
level of power from 4 to 9 GHz. The power measurements mW, 3 mW, and 1 mW, respectively.
were carried out as four-port measurements and the source Finally, Table II summarizes the chip performance and lists
and receiver calibrations were performed for all 4 ports. As various published couplers. The five tunable couplers in the
shown in Fig. 15, the graphs for a 3-dB coupling gain and list are printed couplers on an FR4 or RF board. These in-
0-dB coupling gain were measured, which were converted to clude a varactor-tuned quadrature hybrid coupler [20], tunable
the graphs having input power as the X-axis and output power lumped element 90 hybrid coupler [21], quasi-lumped tunable
as the Y-axis. Therefore, the measured IP1 dB at 6.7 GHz is hybrid coupler [22], software configurable coupler [23], and
0.3 dBm for a 3-dB coupling gain and dBm for a 0-dB tunable stub tapped branch-line coupler [24]. The other two
coupling gain, respectively. couplers are fabricated on a chip. They include a quadrature
The supply voltage for the tunable active directional coupler hybrid coupler using active inductors [25] and CMOS active
was 1.2 V where it was applied directly through . The supply directional coupler [12]. This work was summarized in Table II
voltages through the multilayer on-chip inductor for 3-dB, 0-dB, as well. It showed 6.66.8-GHz high center frequencies, large
176 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MICROWAVE THEORY AND TECHNIQUES, VOL. 61, NO. 1, JANUARY 2013
2.3-GHz-10-dB directivity bandwidth, 0.2-GHz tuning fre-
quency bandwidth and -dB coupling gains, -dB
return loss, -dB insertion loss, low 1.2-V bias voltage,
122-mW low power dissipation, 0.12-mm small size, and
high 0.3-dBm IP1 dB.
VI. CONCLUSION
A new tunable broadband MMIC active directional coupler
was presented. It was fabricated in a 130-nm process, and it was
successfully measured by various methods. The tunable active
directional coupler provided various coupling gains such as 3
dB, 0 dB, dB, and dB. It can tune microwave matching
impedances and center frequencies by applying different bias
and varactor control voltages. The tunable broadband MMIC
active directional coupler was designed, fabricated, and tested
successfully to demonstrate it as a good candidate for on-chip
RF test applications and BiST. The authors are planning to de-
sign and publish more different versions [26] of the tunable ac-
tive directional couplers.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors would like to thank UMC for the chip fabrication,
Rohde & Schwarz and S. Smith for the VNA equipment support,
and Dr. D. Austin for revising the manuscript for publication.
REFERENCES
[1] D. M. Pozar, Microwave Engineering, 2nd ed. New York: Wiley,
1998, ch. 7, pp. 351421, 1998.
[2] B. M. Oliver, Directional electromagnetic couplers, Proc. IRE, vol.
42, no. 11, pp. 16861692, Nov. 1954.
[3] G. D. Monteath, Coupled transmission lines as symmetrical direc-
tional couplers, Proc. IEE B, Radio Electron. Eng., vol. 102, no. 3,
pp. 383392, May 1955.
[4] H. J. Riblet, Mathematical theory of directional couplers, Proc. IRE,
vol. 35, pp. 13071313, Nov. 1947.
[5] H. J. Riblet, The short-slot hybrid junction, Proc. IRE, vol. 40, no. 2,
pp. 180184, Feb. 1952.
[6] P. D. Lomer and J. W. Crompton, A new form of hybrid junction for
microwave frequencies, Proc. IEE B, Radio Electron. Eng., vol. 104,
no. 15, pp. 261264, May 1957.
[7] K. G. Patterson, A method for accurate design of a broad-band multi-
branch waveguide coupler, IRE Trans. Microw. Theory Tech., vol. 7,
no. 4, pp. 466473, Oct. 1959.
[8] J. Lange, Interdigitated stripline quadrature hybrid (correspon-
dence), IEEE Trans. Microw. Theory Tech., vol. 17, no. 12, pp.
11501151, Dec. 1969.
[9] M. Caulton et al., Status of lumped elements in microwave integrated
circuitspresent and future, IEEE Trans. Microw. Theory Tech., vol.
19, no. 7, pp. 588599, Jul. 1971.
[10] B. Pellegrini, Active directional couplers, Proc. IEEE, vol. 55, no. 5,
pp. 721722, May 1967.
[11] F. Denoth and B. Pellegrini, A transistorized directional coupler,
IEEE Trans. Circuit Theory, vol. 15, no. 3, pp. 177184, Sep. 1968.
[12] M. A. Y. Abdalla et al., A compact highly reconfigurable CMOS
MMIC directional coupler, IEEE Trans. Microw. Theory Tech., vol.
56, no. 2, pp. 305319, Feb. 2008.
[13] A. M. Young, et. al., Hybrid Active Combiner and Circulator, U.S.
Patent 7,129,783, Oct. 2006.
[14] R. Scheeler and Z. Popovic, GaAs MMIC tunable directional cou-
pler, in Proc. 2012 IEEE MTT-S Int. Microwave Symp. Digest (MTT),
Jun. 2012.
[15] E. L. Ginzton et al., Distributed amplification, Proc. IRE, vol. 36, no.
8, pp. 956969, Aug. 1948.
[16] B. M. Ballweber et al., A fully integrated 0.55.5-GHz CMOS dis-
tributed amplifier, IEEE J. Solid-State Circuits, vol. 35, no. 2, pp.
231239, Feb. 2000.
[17] B. Hur and W. R. Eisenstadt, CMOS programmable gain distributed
amplifier with 0.5-dB gain steps, IEEE Trans. Microw. Theory Tech.,
vol. 59, no. 6, pp. 15521559, Jun. 2011.
[18] C. S. Aitchison, The intrinsic noise figure of the MESFET distributed
amplifier, IEEE Trans. Microw. Theory Tech., vol. 33, no. 6, pp.
460466, Jun. 1985.
[19] C. R. Brewitt-Taylor et al., Noise figure of MESFETs, Proc. Inst.
Elec. Eng., Part 1, Solid State and Electron Devices, vol. 127, pp. 18,
Feb. 1980.
[20] E. E. Djoumessi et al., Varactor-tuned dual-band quadrature hybrid
coupler, IEEE Microw. Wireless Compon. Lett., vol. 16, no. 11, pp.
603605, Nov. 2006.
[21] E. A. Fardin et al., Electronically tunable lumped element 90 hybrid
coupler, Electron. Lett., vol. 42, no. 6, pp. 353355, Mar. 2006.
[22] F. Ferrero et al., Compact quasi-lumped hybrid coupler tunable over
large frequency band, Electron. Lett., vol. 43, no. 19, pp. 10301031,
Sep. 2007.
[23] S.-M. Wang et al., A software configurable coupler with pro-
grammable coupling coefficient, in Proc. IEEE/MTT-S Int. Mi-
crowave Symp., 2007, Jun. 2007, pp. 185188.
[24] C. C. Leong et al., A tunable dual-band DGS stub tapped branch-
line coupler, in Proc. Microwave Conf. (APMC), 2010, Dec. 2010,
pp. 12521255, Asia-Pacific.
[25] H.-H. Hsieh et al., A compact quadrature hybrid MMIC using CMOS
active inductors, IEEE Trans. Microw. Theory Tech., vol. 55, no. 6,
pp. 10981104, Jun. 2007.
[26] B. Hur and W. R. Eisenstadt, Tunable Active Directional Coupler,
U.S. Patent Application, 13/526,031, Jun. 2012.
Byul Hur (S10M12) received the B.S. degree
in electronics engineering from Yonsei University,
Seoul, Korea, in 2000, and the M.S. and Ph.D.
degrees from the University of Florida, Gainesville,
in 2007 and 2011, respectively.
He is currently a postdoctoral research associate
in the Department of Electrical and Computer En-
gineering at the University of Florida. His research
focuses on mixed-signal/RF embedded integrated
circuit (IC) design and test, and sensor application
development. He possesses various research experi-
ences in both hardware and software.
William R. Eisenstadt (SM92) received the B.S.,
M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering
from Stanford University, Stanford, CA, in 1979,
1981, and 1986, respectively.
In 1984, he joined the faculty of the University
of Florida, Gainesville, where he is currently a
Professor. He has authored or coauthored over 150
refereed conference and journal publications. His
research focuses on mixed-signal/RF embedded
integrated circuit (IC) testing, high-speed I/O char-
acterization, BiSTs, and differential -parameter
characterization of integrated circuit (IC) devices, packages, and interconnect.
In addition, he has been involved with large-signal microwave circuit design
and test and power-amplifier design. He possesses over 25 years experience in
IC design and test.
Dr. Eisenstadt serves on the ISCAS Analog Signal Processing Technical
Committee and the Wireless Test Workshop Executive Committee. He was the
recipient of the 1985 National Science Foundation (NSF) Presidential Young
Investigator Award.