7.6-8.6GHz Tunable Active MMIC Filter For Agile On-Chip X-Band Radar Receiver Front-Ends

In this paper, we evaluate a new design of a previously presented (second order) tunable active X-band MMIC filter. By using a two-stage low noise amplifier in each filter section a higher filter gain and selectivity as well as a lower filter noise figure can be achieved at the expense of a smaller filter tuning range. The filter is tunable to eight different center frequencies between 7.6-8.6GHz. Typical measured data for all eight tuning states show a maximum gain that varies between 13-26dB, a 4-5dB noise figure and a spurious-free dynamic range of 58-67dB. The presented filter could potentially be utilized as an important building block to realize agile compact on-chip receiver front-ends for future adaptive X-band radar array antennas, for example.

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