A terminating-type MEMS microwave power sensor and its amplification system

A terminating-type MEMS microwave power sensor and its amplification system are presented in this paper. A SPICE model is introduced to simulate temperature distribution of this power sensor, and the model has a reference value to estimate the sensitivity of the power sensor. This power sensor is designed and fabricated using MEMS technology and the GaAs MMIC process. It is measured in the frequency range up to 20 GHz with an input power in the 0 to 50 mW range. Over the 50 mW dynamic range, the sensitivity is about 0.29, 0.24 and 0.22 mV mW−1 at 5, 10 and 15 GHz, respectively. The output voltage of the power sensor ranges from 0.64 to 15.2 mV at 5 GHz. After amplification, the output voltage ranges from 0.19 to 6.56 V. The amplification gain is about 437.5, and the sensitivity is increased to 1274 mV mW−1. At 15 GHz, the output voltage of the power sensor ranges from 0.57 to 11.69 mV. After amplification, the output voltage ranges from 0.146 to 5.02 V. The amplification gain is about 438, and the sensitivity is increased to 974.8 mV mW−1. The measurement results show that the amplification system can amplify the output weak signal of the power sensor well and have good linearity.