A W-band detector with high tangential signal sensitivity and voltage sensitivity

Abstract

This paper proposes a W-band detector with high tangential signal sensitivity (TSS) and voltage sensitivity, which is intended to apply for 3 mm wave radiometer. The commercially available GaAs detector diode Agilent <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">®</sup> HSCH-9161 is adopted to build an unamplified direct detector, along with antipodal finline transition, broad band microchip impedance matching network and low pass filter. Obtained TSS is better than -49 dBm from 83.5 GHz to 103 GHz; voltage sensitivity up to 850 mv/mw over 84 GHz to 102 GHz is achieved and the peak value is more than 2200 mv/mw at 94 GHz. The whole circuit is based on microstrip circuits and is hence easy and cheap to fabricate, which satisfies the low cost requirements of assembling of large passive millimeter wave imaging array.