An Ultra-Wideband Monolitic Active Balun

An integrated active Balun has been developed for ultra-wideband communication systems. This solution integrates in a single chip a protection from the presence of high-level signals, an ultra-wideband amplifier, a further differential-to-single ended amplification stage and an impedance transformer. The MMIC has a very large bandwidth ranging from 0.5 GHz to 18.0 GHz and has been conceived to be driven by a self-complementary antenna and a balanced mode with an input impedance of 150 ohms. In addition, the circuit has a single bias from the output port that greatly simplifies the mechanical structure of the module. Performance are promising, having measurements confirmed the simulation results.