A microwave power sensor based on GaAs MMIC technology

A novel structure for measuring the power of microwave signals is presented. It measures the microwave power coupled from the CPW line by a MEMS membrane. In this method, the signal is available during the power detection. The fabrication of the power sensor is compatible with the GaAs MMIC process. The design, fabrication and experimental results of this sensor are given. The experimental results show that the sensor has a reflection of less than −15 dB and insertion loss of less than 2.0 dB up to 12 GHz. The total sensitivity of such a power sensor is 10.4 µV mW−1 at 10 GHz frequency.

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