A Solid-State Reference Waveform Standard

A solid-state reference waveform filter has been developed which uses the Maxwell-Wagner capacitor effect. This filter is realized in a stripline configuration with a lossy dielectric consisting of a thick (5-μm) layer of SiO2 on Si. The equivalent circuit of this filter is equivalent to that for previously developed filters which used a lossy liquid dielectric. A preliminary design has been completed and a filter fabricated for which the design characteristic impedance, 38 Ω, and transition duration (rise time), 300 ps, agree with measured values to within 2 and 17 percent, respectively. The temperature dependence of the filter transition duration has been estimated from the temperature dependence of the filter conductance to be about 1 percent/° C.