CPW X-BAND DIELECTRIC RESONATOR STABILISED OSCLLATOR
ChangKah Hyong
Microwave Laboratory,National University of Singapore
l0 Kent RidgeDrive, Singapore0511
Abstract - An X-band tuneable GaAs FET dielectric
resonator stabilised oscillator has been constructed. The
circuit is fabicated using coplanar waveguide(CPr\ MIC
technologt, with a designedprocedurethat takesadvantage
of thefacilities availablefrom the uy of HP85I}C vector
network analyser,and a microwave CAD program, EEsof
hlllbla,tlws streamliningand simplifying the task TheDRO
has a SSBnoise is -96 dBc/ IIz ot 100 kl{z of carrier
frequenqt. Theavailablepwer is an averageof +13 dBm,
with a corwersion eficiency of 12.6%. A mechanically
tuneablefrequencyrmge of 124MHz with an outputpower
variation ofless than 2 dB hasbeenachieved
INTRODUCTION
Since the advent of solid-state technology, oscillators
constructedusing mioostrf techniqueshave continuously
been reported Recently, with ttre push to high frequencies
and monolithic technology, coplarur waveguides(CPWs)
have experienceda growing interest due to their 4pealing
propertiesand advantagesover miqosfips [1], suchas no-
via holes neede4 easy shunt and series connections,and
easy adaptation and corryatibility with the MMIC
technology.
Unfortunately,up to now the commercialCAD designtools
do not contain enoughaccuratemodels for line elements,
componentsand discontinuitiesin coplanartechnique and
thereforecfucuitdesip is very difFsull in this technology.
In the future, with more CPW modelsavailablein CAD
software, a large historical microsfrip des4n databasecan
be t4ped. CPW will prove a very successfirltechnology
indee4 both in tennsof perfonnanceand cost
OSCILLATORMODEL
7,H
r B l Orclllrtor Modrl
LINEAR CAD DESIGN PROCEDURE
The block schematic of a rdlection stabilised oscillator
with feedback is shown in Figure l. Due to the
unavailability of the large signal Saarametenof the active
element"the tansistor model usedis the small signalmodel
of theFET (flr0l61lhby Fujitsu)intheformofan
Sjarameter data file. Series feedback is added by a
reactancein the common(source)lead. This is providedin
this caseby the open-end-gapCPW stub.
StepOne
Obtainthe one-portS-parametersof the resonatorfrom the
HP85I0C AutomaticVectorNetworkAnalyser,for
frequenciesfrom 0.045GHz to 20 GHz.
This setof S-parameters, which gives a relatively high
loadedQ-factorand a reasonrblyhigb reflectionco€fficient
(seeGraph l) at the rcsorumcefrequency(9.75 GHz), is
savedinto a datafile in Touchstonerufonnat for usein the
CAD sirmlation.
!.1
I
-
r ,' - 'i tii'
^',1't
' l
I
' i
I
Graph 1 Mognitude Plot (in dB) of the Reflection
oefficients of the DR Coupled to the CPW
Line for the Setof $Parameters Chosen
Step Two
With the resonator incorporatd the series feedback stubs
are then optimised for maximum negative resistance, R6.
The optimisationproc€ssis carriedout in three stages. The
first stageinvolves carrying out a parametersweepfor the
length of the seriesfeedbackstub at f*", and finding the
stub length that gives the maximum value for the negative
resistance,Rr".
The second stage involves the use of the optimisation
facility in Libra to achiwe the goal morc accurately.The
'tune' facility is also usedto seethe effectsof varying the
stublength on the negativeresistancevalue.
Graph2 Graphof ResistanccR61rgainstFrequency
for VaryingSeriesFeedbackStubLength
Finally, the resistrnce, Rr* , looking into the FET with
seriesfeedback(and with the DR at the input port of the
FET with feedback)ftom the ouQut port of the FET, is
ploted against frequency, frrom 0.45GHz to 20Glfz, as
shownin Graph2, to seeif the negativeresistanceis indeed
pres€ntat f*, and whetherthe stub length is the optimised
value. The result is positive, with a maximum negative
resistanceof -17.680 at 9.75 GHa which is the resonance
frequency of the DR configuration chosen earlier. The
optimised stub length for eadr of the sourceterminals is
foundto be 136mils.
StepThree
The irput stability circles are plotted for a range of
frequency in the vicinity of L' This is to ensure that
instability canoccur at the irput port in the frequencyrange
of interest- 9 GHz to I I GHz. The results are plotted in
together with the trace of f., the reflection coefficient
looking towardsthe DR from the FET irydport
f, must lie in the potentially rmstableareason the Smith
Chartto obtainnegativeresistanceat the input port.
StepFour
The ouput matchingcircuit is designedto transformRL the
load impedanceto Zsp, zuchthat
50Q()
Rop+j Xop: -RfJ3 -j Xf.r (1)
After start-rp, the negative resistanceRi* wiil decrease.
Equation (1) gives lllaximum power transf,erto the load
assumingtlnt fte mapitude of the negative conductance
decreaseslinearly with increasing arylitude [21. This
approximation has been found to give good results in
practice.
StepFive
The ouput-rnatching shunt stub is combinedwith the dc
biasing network in order to reduce the nurnber of
discontinuities along the output transmission line. The
output stability circles are plotted (see Graph 3), and the
output impedance,Zop must lie in the potentially unstable
regimeson the Smith chart within the frequencyrange of
interest.
";:':;-- -
::::'::.::'
i
- r -::..._l:
_
Graph 3 Output Stability Circles and Impedanccsfor
Frequenciesbetween9.7 GEz- 10 GEz
Step Six
The oscillator stability is tested at frequenciesclose to {o"
[3] by displaying 1/T;"and f, on a Smith chart. As libra is
unable to plot l/T;, the results are presentedusing MDS
(seeGraph4).
 rl'atr(-l.llllt-tl_l9l?-l6E_ll)
I 1.t!. !i 0tfr!
rr.l

r ! - Z l r l 5 6 ? . ! ! t - l l tl ll . T S a t - r l i
U - ! . ? ! 00 t + 0 !
I?-a

Lrtrl.ll..5l l, l t
I'...{.1/l.f.t..St I,l)

Graph 4 Plots of 1/f6 and l,

Graph4 showsthatthe 1/T-(f; andf,(f) loopsintersect
eachother,andtheir changeswith frequencypoint in
oppositedirections. This will ensurestability at only one
frequency.
Step&ven (opfional)
If a non-linearmodelhasbeenderived,then the oscilliator
canbe simulatedusing a non-linearenalysisprogram. This
checksftequenry and ouQutpower. It is alsopossibleto
usesucha programto plot the predicted1/f;,, dependency
rpon anplitude and identi$ the angleof intersection
betweenl/Ii" (v,D and f, (f) on the Smith.trrrt a1rcangle
shouldbe as closeto 90" aspossibleto minimise AM to PM
noiseconversion[3].
PRACTICAL CONSIDERATIONS
Fig 3 f inal Cirruit in Metal Eousing (fop lid not
shown)
The groundplaneis purposelydesigredto be ratherwide to
avoid discnepanciesfrom the assunption made, i.e., the
groundplane is infinite. As this is only a prototype,and not
for commercialmassproduction"the size of the circuit is of
secondaryfuryortance.
The conponentswere later solderedonto the zubstrate,and
the whole circuit was placed in a metal housing specially
designedto suit a CPW circuit The Metal housing shields
the circuit frromoutside interfer€nce,and reducesradiation
loss. The top and botom covers were designedto be low
enoughsuch that no wavegride mode of resonancecould
occurin either the upp€rpart or the lower part of the casing
but not too low lest the cbaract€risticimpedanceof the
whole circuit would be atrecied[4].
A thin film microwave resistor was used to tenninate the
50Cffine at the gateinpul This line was corpled to a DR,
a high Q material made by Thompso4 with unlnown
dielectric constantand teryerahue coeffrcienl Apart from

i the GaAs FET, flr016ft and the 50O thin film microwave
resistor, only two other discr€tecorponeils were used- a
normal chip resistorfor self{iasing and an ATC capacitor
for dc blocking. All the cornponentsused were soldered

Fig, 2 Mark Layout

J onto the zubstrate.

The ATC capacitorand the chip resistorhavebeenassumed

The circuitwasfabricatedon RT/Duroid6010.2(seeFig.2),
with a dielectric constantof 10.2. and a thickness of 25
mils. A photographof the assembledoscillator is shown in
Figure3.
ideal in the simulationexercise.But at l0 GHz, they c:tnno
longer appearideal. In fact the measued reactanceof the
ATC capacitoris induclive at frequencieshigher than 330
MHz. It can only be hopedthat the inductancevalue is still
low at l0 GHz, or else it will serve as a high impedance
choketo the microwavesignal.
To test the completecircuiq the ornput of the oscillator was
connected to a vector spectrum analyser to check for
oscillationq and spurious oscillations were observed at
around 3 GHz. One interesting observation was made.
When the bonding wires were all removed" spurious
oscillationoccurredat 3.5 GHz. This
This phenomenondisappearedwhen bonding wires were
soldered around the T-junctions. near the two source
terrrinals, gate terminal, and the drain terminal acrossthe
transistor leads, however, no oscillation was observed.
Then the resistorwas movedalongthe line and the position
of the DR was also con$antly adjusted. Oscillation
occured whenthe resistorwasat the end of the CPW series
feedbackstrb. The resistorwas modelledas ideal rn Libra,
but in actual fact its high frequenry behaviour could be
cryacitive in nahre, especiallyby virtue of the fact that it is
a normal chip resi$or.
After sometrial and errorsregardingthe position of the DR,
the optimal oscillation was obsewedat frequencieslower
than l0 GHa with or.trputpower greaterthan 12 dBm, and
with no spurious. Howwer, when the circuit was tested
again the next day, the power becametoo low (less than
0dBm) for the oscillator to be usefirl, md the absentof the
casinglid would makethe oscillation disrypeared- Later it
was discovered that one of the bonding wires was
dislocatedfrom the ground plane. When all the bonding
wires had been replaced,and the circuit board surfacewas
cleanedusing acetone,the frequenry of oscillation became
higher than l0 GHz This shows how important the
bonding wires are for a CPW circui! wi&out them the
circuit could be totally different from the intendeddesign.
The position of the DR that gave the highestouQut power,
optimal tuning rangeand high frequencystability was ftxed
(see Graph 5 for the output of the oscillator), and further
analysiscould thenbe carriedout to assessits performance,
which is discussedshortlv.
A-r"t F-N
H- 1C
eodu
OlFlrn 10dts.,'
MKn
1|f
8.50dElm
r-6213eGHz
CEtlTrjF tO.1ea1--JRGrrr 6PAfl S.OOOMHz
faBw iok,l- \-/frh' 3or.rlz Fh'F 5().Oms
Graph 5 Output Frequencyas Displayedby Spectrum
of the Oscillator
OSCILLATION FREQUENCYAND OUTPUTPOWER
No spuriousoscillation has been observed.A tuning range
of l2l MHz (10.0728GLlz - 10.1963GHz) is achieved
with ouput power variationsof less than 2 dB. which is
around l.2oh of the power correspondingto the hming
mnge. A tuning rangeof 25'7lvftlz (10.0728GHz-10.33
GHz) is achievedwith an outptil powervariation of 3 dB.
The intendedfrequencyof oscillation is around10 GHz, brf
the result obtainedaboveshowsthat the frequenciesare all
highs than l0 GHz for the position of the DR chosenand
fixed. It is observedthat for at this position of the DR the
power output and the frequenry stability of the circuit as
time passesis optimal. It is possibleto locatea positionfor
the DR where the oscillation is tuneable to around
l0.00cllz, bu the power outpts will not be as high as the
current configuratioq and the SSB phase noise of the
circuit is not quite appealing(seeGraph6).
MKF
AfTEt-: ?OdB ?.67cJBT
HL 1C). od:Jm t od|3,' I . 995)a ar:l tz
t-
_ _ . Ii
i
-Z'r'i 9l-
? . 6 <l Bm
=-3X,"3;i3II=
*::;':3"::."":33;"i..*,-,-
Graph 6 Frequency Spectrum of the Oscillator Centred at
10 GIIZ
Therefore,the position of the DR on the CPW plane is
adjustedto give the constantoutputpower stableoscillation
frequency (against time) and better hrning range. The
higher-than-expectedresonant frequenc-vthat gives the
maximumouput powercanbe attributedto the presenceof
the metal housing. The housing can functionally be
comparedto the presenceof a metal tuning disc abovethe
DR - the lower is the disc, the higher the frequenry of
oscillation. It should be noted that during the
chancterisationstageof the DR, the metal housingwas yet
to beproducedandat thattime, only testjigs wereused.
Other factors affecting the optimal range of tuneable
oscillation ftequenciesare the CPW discontinuitiesthat
have all been assumedideal (exceptthe end-gapeffects),
:rnd the small-signal S-parameters used in the desigt stage TI{E HARMONICS CONTENT
of the oscillator.
The TDRO has only an unwanted harmonics at20.2 GHz.
Its frst harmonic level is low. -39.5 dBc (-(9.l7dB +
SINGLESIDEBANDNOISE 30.33d8c)) (SeeGraph 9).

One of the most hportant performancecriteria used in ATTEN

HL 10
AOdB
odBm rodg/
MKF
20
_3O.33OBM
13GHz

gading an oscillator is perh4s the single sidebandphase

noise. The methodusedhereis by no meflrs accuate, since
accuratemeaswementof phasenoise requirescomplicated
equipment The synthesisedspectrum analyser is the
methodusedin this project.
The carrier-to-noisesidebandlevel is measureddirectly
using the instnrment'sdifferential cursors(seeGraph7).

A fT=Nl 20ct8
Hr 10 odBm
CENTEF IQ . !7EHZ SPAN AO ,54GHZ
aBw 1 . oMHz VBW 1 . OMHz 6WP aaomg

Graph 9. Harmonics Contentof the TDRO Output

DEPENDENCEOF EFFICIENCYON DRAIN

VOLTAGE

Plots of Output Pffi and Efflcl€nca ys Vd

1a
CEN-:Etrl LO,e.?7A.!l;C.t., SPAI{ 1, OOOMHZ
ftBd !\)kt-l)z xvn! SO<)| l: SWtr B4Om3
12

Graph 7 Display of the Vector Spectrum Analyser Used in t0

MeasuringSSBPhaseNoise iro
s 1
The result is then converted from its measured bandwidth to ! e
G .!
5 6 €
a I Hz bandwidth. The results are plotted in Graph 8. ! - . 2 u
o
a
a

Single Sideband Phase Noise 2 2

0 0 0

-n vd'v

{
a
Graphl0 Efficiency
of theTDROvsDrainSupplyVoltage
!
2
: {
2 The maximumefficiency(=P*/(Ia.VJ x 100%) occursat
-to
Va = 5 V, which corresponds
to a 12.60/"
efficienry.
-1D

-1S

FREQI"'ENCYSTABILMY WITH TEMPERATURE

Graph 8. Single Sideband Phase Noise for fo$ l0-2 GHz
The oscillatorhasa singesidebandnoiseof -96dBcat 100
kHz from the carrier. This figure is not a good one, and can
still be inproved furtherby lightly couplingthe DRO to the
CPW,but the ouQutpowerwill be compromised.
The TDRO was subjectedto an ambiencetemperaturefrom
25'c to 70
"c.
The result showsthat the GaAs FET TDRO has a +20
ppm/ "C frequencystability.which is not conparableto the
nonnal figrne for a FET, which usuallyhaslessthan 5 ppm/ oscillationis obsenredover the rangeof 0.045 GHz - 50
"C of tenperaturestability. GHz.

The power ouQul on the other hand, is less dependenton The present coupling condition gives the optimum
temperahre,having a variation of only I to 2 dB when the frequency stability over time. widest tuneable frequenry
temperature increasesthroughout the whole range (see rangeand optimal outputpower.Its SSBnoiseis -96 dBc/
Gr4h ll). Hz at 100 kHz off carrier ftequency. The availablepower
is an averageof +13 dBm with a corn'ersionefficiencyof
Plot!of Fpquocy atrd Ou$ut P(m.s Anbbil Tmp.ntuE t2.60.
10.'r64000 9.00

10.1ffiOO 8.00

7.00
10.160000
ACKNOWLEGEMENT
5.00
10.158000
6mo
o 10.156000 Acknowlegmentis madeto the Dept. of Electrical
4.mI
10 1540fl) e
Engineeringfor ftrndingthis project. Specialthanksto [tof.
3.m
P.S.Kooi andProf.Q.J.Xr! for their insightsandguidance.
10.152000
2.00
10.150000 1.00

10.'148000 REFERENCES
25 36 40 45 50 55 60 65 69
AmbieotTmFntuF, deg C "Microstrip
Iu GUPTA K. C., GARG. R.. and BAHL.
lines and slot-lines."Artech House,Inc, Norwood,
Graph ll Frequency Stability and Power Output of the A/L4,1990.
TDRO for Temperature Variations between 25
deg. Celcius to 70 deg. Celcius I2l G. Gonzale4 "Microwave TransistorAmplifiers."
PrenticeHall.p196,1984.
Nwertheless,this poor frequencystability due to variations
in tempemtureis expectedas it hasnwer beencateredto in t3l BOWLES, J.W, *The Oscillator as a Reflection
this projec! dueto the unavailability of the DR temperature Amplifier: an intuitive approach to oscillator
sensitivity figure and dfficulties in measuringthe phaseof Design,"lvfiuowaveJournal,pp.83-98.June1986.
thereflectioncoefficientof theactivedevice[5]. The metal
housingwas only fabricatedtowardsthe end of the project, l4l M.S.Leong,P.S.Kooi,A.L.SatyaPrakas["Effect of
but we needthe metal housingto accunilelycharacterisethe a Conducting Enclosure on the Characteristic
loadedQ faclorof the DR. Impedanceof Coplanar Waveguides",Lrtcrowtwe
Journal,Aug. 1986.
It has been noted from the analysisgrven by 16l thiat, Q
may be selected by adjusting the coupling coefficient l5l Darko Kajfez and Pierre GuillorL Dielectric
between the DR and the CPW line at will, and that a ArtechHouse,p369, 1986.
Resonators,
certain value of Q, will make the tefiperature stability of
the circuit assmall as negligible.
161 C. Tsironis and V.Pauker, "Temperature
Sinceit is only possibleto fine-hrnetemp€raturesensitivity stabilization of GaAs MESFET oscillators using
of the circuit by changingthe position of the DR so a to dielectric resonators." IEEE Trans. lvficrowave
vary q, if we want to obtain a temperature-stable Theory Tech., vol. MTT-31. pp.3t2-31.1.March
operation,it will requirethe glued DR be removedfrom the r983.
subsfate from time to time. Howwer, this has not been
canied out dueto time constraints.

CONCLUSION

A reflection-tne dielectric resonatoroscillator designed

basedon the CPW MIC technologyhas been zuccessfrrlly
fabricated and tested. It has a constant output power of
12.50dBm - 14.3dBm, and a mechanicaltuning rangeof
10.0728GHz - 10.1963GHz. Only one harmonics
occurring at 20.1 GHz. at -39.5 dBc. No spurious