Ultra Broadband Extended Dynamic Range MMIC DLVA

Design, fabrication and experimental results of a 2 to 18 GHz high dynamic range MMIC DLVA featuring short recovery time are presented. This fast DLVA is a Successive Detection Logarithmic Amplifier. The microwave part consists of five 2-18 GHz GaAs MMIC stages ; each stage is composed of MMIC amplifiers, active power divider, attenuator and Schottky detector. Detected outputs levels are video limited before summation to obtain a logarithmic video response over a 65 dB extended dynamic range. No use of logarithmic video amplifier ensure short recovery time less than 200 ns over the whole dynamic range.