Design of X-Band Time Delay Component With High Integration

An X-band true time delay (TTD) component integrated with bi-directional amplifier is proposed in this conference paper, which is mainly used in slight and compact SAR. The X-band time delay component consist of a time delay chip, a bi-directional amplifier, a serial-to-parallel converter, a positive-to-negative converter and a multilayer dielectric microwave board. The module is highly integrated within a cavity using monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC) and surface mount technology (SMT). The interconnection between the ball grid array (BGA) package and the RF chain in the time delay component is modeled and optimized using full-wave solver. A 7-bit X-band true time delay component is designed, fabricated and measured. According to the measured results, the X-band true time delay component based on BGA package achieved the receive gain with 10.3±0.3 dB, transmit power greater than 23.6 dBm, and time-delay accuracy within ±0.5 ps from 100 ps to 700 ps.