Our computer lab is currently located in the Tech Square Research Building (TSRB) on the 5th floor. The following is a list of equipment owned by the Microwave Circuit Technology Group:

Hardware

• 9 Dell Dimension 8200 desktop computers (2.0+ GHz)
• Dell laptop
• Digital Camera
• HP Scanjet 4400c scanner
• HP Deskjet 940c color printer
• HP Laserjet 4100N laser printer

Software

• Hewlett-Packard Advanced Designing System (HP-ADS)
• Ansoft’s High Frequency Structure Simulator (HFSS)
• Microstripes
• FEMLAB (Comsol)
• Sonnet
• EMPicasso

We also hold offices in the Microelectronic Research Center (MiRC).
The following is a list of equipment available to the Mircowave Circuit Technology Group through the MiRC:

Laboratory: The MiRC clean room includes a variety of fabrication and characterization equipment:

• CVC Electron beam evaporator
• CVC RF and DC sputterers
• CVC Filament evaporator
• Edwards Auto 306 sputterer
• Molecular Beam Epitaxy machine
• Karl Suss MJB-3 mask aligners (including IR capability)
• Karl Suss MA-6 mask aligner
• Karl Suss spin coaters
• Rapid thermal annealer
• Lindberg furnaces
• Plasma therm ICP (deep RIE)
• Plasma therm PECVD
• Plasma term RIE
• STS PECVD
• Plas-Mos ellipsometer
• Ozone stripper
• Alpha step profilometer
• Veeco Dektak profilometer
• Gold plating station
• Critical point drier for MEMS release
• Hitachi 3500H SEM
• Semitool spin rinse drier
• Wet etching stations
• Automated dicing saw
• Polishing and lapping stations
• Dark room for mask generation
• Wire bonders (Au, Cu, Al)
• Wafer bonding stations
• Stations for chip to substrate connections via reflow of eutectic solders or conductive adhesives
• High speed precision flip-chip placement
• K&S wire ball bump bonder

Computer: The computing resources available at the Microwave Engineering Lab include 15 Sun workstations (Blade and Ultra 10), 15 personal computers (several with 1 GB RAM), 15 iMacs for data processing, several HP 4000 laserjet printers and two HP 4500 color laser printers.

The software resources consist of packages for 3-D full-wave simulations, such as Ansoft’s High Frequency Structure Simulator (HFSS), Sonnet and IE3D (method of moments), as well as HP’s Advanced Design System (HP-ADS) with Momentum, Cadence and Virtual Photonics. In-house Finite-Difference-Time-Domain and Multi-Resolution-Time-Domain codes have also been developed at the ECE department and are available to the PI. Mathematical and graphical software includes MatLab, Kaleidagraph, MS Office and Mathematica. In addition, the ECE department has labs that include several Sun Sparc workstations, PCs, Macintosh computers and laser printers.

Major equipment: The Microwave Lab has the following equipment:

1. ATN Load-Pull system

• Network Analyzer and Display : HP 8510C
• Source – Synthesized Sweeper (45MHz – 50 GHz) : HP 83651A
• Source – Synthesized Sweeper (2GHz – 20 GHz) : HP 83622B
• S-parameter Test Set (500 MHz – 18 GHz) : HP 8514A
• Signal Conditioning Module : ATN SCM
• Amplifier By-pass Module : ATN ABM
• Power Amplifier Module (2W x 2Ch / 2.0 – 8.0 GHz) : ATN PAM
• Power Amplifier Module (1 W x 1 Ch / 6.0 – 18.0 GHz) : ATN PAM
• Power Amplifier Module (10 W x 1 Ch / 0.8 – 2 GHz) : ATN PAM
• Power Meter : HP 436A
• Power Sensor (-30 dBm / 20 dBm / 50 MHz – 26.5 GHz) : HP 8485A
• Spectrum Analyzer (9 KHz – 26.5 GHz) : HP 8563E
• Tuners System :
  • Electronic Mainframe : ATN EM
  • Electronic Load Module x2 (0.8 – 4.5 GHz / +40 dBm max) : ATN ELM
  • Electronic Load Module x2 (6 – 18 GHz / +40 dBm max) : ATN ELM
• Software : ATN LP2

2. ATN Noise system

• Network Analyzer and Display : HP 8510C
• Source – Synthesized Sweeper (10 MHz – 50 GHz) : HP 83651B
• Source – Synthesized Sweeper (10 MHz – 50 GHz) : HP 83650A
• S-parameter Test Set (45 MHz – 50 GHz) : HP 8517B
• Noise Figure Meter : HP8970B
• Noise Figure Meter Test Set : HP 8971C
• Wafer Probe Test Set : ATN NP5
• Mismatch Noise Source : ATN MNS-5
• Remote Receiver Module : ATN RRM-5
• Software : ATN NP5

C.     Mm-Wave system

• Network Analyzer and Display : HP 8510C
• Source – Synthesized Sweeper (10 MHz – 50 GHz) : HP83650A
• Source – Swept CW Generator (10 MHz – 20 GHz) : HP 83623L
• mmW Test Set x2 (50 – 75 GHz) : HP W85104A
• mmW Test Set x2 (75 – 110 GHz) : HP W85104A
• S-parameter Test Set (45 MHz – 50 GHz) : HP 8517B
• mmW Controller : HP 85105A
• HP 8510C vector network analyzer (45 MHz-50 GHz) (3^rd  50 GHz analyzer)

D.    Pulsed IV system

• Pulse Generator 1 Ch (100V / 2A) : HP 8114A
• Pulse / Pattern Generator 2 Ch (20V / 800mA) : HP 81110A
• Digitizing Scope (4 Ch / 200 MHz) : Tektronix TDS 420A
• Current probe Amplifier : Tektronix AM 503B

E.     Pulsed Load-Pull System

• Pulsed IV System
• High frequency Digitizing Scope (4 Ch / 20 GHz) : Agilent 86100A
• Source – Synthetized Sweeper (10MHz – 20 GHz) : Agilent 83623B
• Universal Power Meter 2 Ch : Gigatronics 8542C
• Peak Power Sensor x2 (45 MHz – 26.5 GHz) : Gigatronics 80353A
• Maury Microwave Mechanical Tuners (2.0 – 18 GHz) : Maury ATS
• Broadband Power Amplifier (10 – 15 W)

F.      Probing systems

• Room Temperature Probe Station x4 : Cascade Microtech
• Custom Cryogenic Probe Station (18 – 350 K)
• Hot chuck (300K – 500K)
• Cascade RF Microwave Probe station (additional probe station)

G.     Miscellaneous

• Semiconductor Parameter Analyzer : HP 4145B, HP 4155B
• DC source/monitor : HP 4142B, HP 61000
• Microwave Transition Analyzer (up to 40GHz) : HP78020
• High frequency scope (up to 20GHz) : HP 86100A

In addition, the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) has an anechoic chamber for various antenna measurements and cryocoolers for testing of electronic circuits at extremely low temperatures. The NSF Packaging Research Center also has several lasers (Argon Ion, Nd:YAG, HeNe and DFB) and other optoelectronic equipment (e.g. spectrophotometer, optical modulator, lightwave component analyzer).