50-dB Attenuation Range 3-bit Low Insertion Loss Ku-Band and Ka-Band 100nm GaAs Digital Step Attenuators

This paper presents 50-dB attenuation range low insertion loss 100nm Gallium Arsenide (GaAs) digital step attenuators at the Ku-band and Ka-band. The distributed type, combined with parallel RC compensation and reduced-size quarter-wavelength techniques, is utilized to achieve low insertion loss, good attenuation, and phase error. Specifically, the 14-18 GHz DSA exhibits an insertion loss of less than 4.8 dB and a Root-Mean-Square (RMS) amplitude error of 0.72 dB. Similarly, the 34-37 GHz DSA achieves an insertion loss of under 6.4 dB and RMS amplitude error of 1.14 dB. The output third-order intercept point (OIP3) of both designs is approximately 40 dBm.