A Novel Two-Dimensional Changeover GaN MMIC Switch
for Electrically Selectable SPDT Multifunctional Device
Hiroshi Mizutani, Ryo Ishikawa*, and Kazuhiko Honjo*
Salesian Polytechnic, Tokyo, JAPAN, mizutani@salesio-sp.ac.jp
* The University of Electro-Communications, Tokyo, JAPAN
Abstract — This paper presents a novel
frequency/amplitude two-dimensional change-over gallium
nitride (GaN) monolithic microwave integrated circuit
(MMIC) switch. A frequency/amplitude two-dimensional
changeover switch is an essential function block for
electrically selectable single-pole-double-throw (SPDT)
multifunctional devices in reconfigurable radio frequency
(RF) front-end, which can change its function to SPDT switch,
diplexer, duplexer, and so on. The demonstrated two-stage
GaN MMIC indicates two-dimensional switching
characteristics not only of changing the amplitude for
ON/OFF states as the conventional switch but also of
switching two frequency pass-bands between around 8-GHz
and around 26-GHz. The insertion losses of lower than 1.6 dB
and the isolations with higher than 13.3 dB are obtained for
both pass-bands. The presented two-dimensional changeover
switch function block promises to realize electrically
selectable SPDT multifunctional devices for reconfigurable
broadband RF front-end with low costs.
Index Terms — switch, band-pass-filter, GaN, FET,
MMIC, reconfigurable.
I. INTRODUCTION
In the 5th generation (5G) of the high-speed wireless
communications era, frequency sources for the Internet of
Things (IoT) tend to run short. Since a lot of sensors and
wireless IoT terminals connect simultaneously to the
clouds via wireless communications, a wider bandwidth is
essential for realizing tremendous data traffic from IoT
terminals to the clouds [1].
To overcome above issues, the improvement of
bandwidths for radio communications is essential from
Shannon’s theorem [2]. Carrier Aggregation (CA) is one
of the most efficient technologies to improve the
bandwidths for high-speed radio communications by
operating multiple existing frequency bands concurrently
[2]. Joint operation of frequency division duplex (FDD)
with time division duplex (TDD) can increase further
communications data rate for CA [3].
Generally, FDD CA needs diplexer for combining
various frequency signals or duplexer for using a single
antenna to both TX/RX signals. On the other hand, SPDT
switch for TX/RX is an essential device for TDD CA.
SPDT multifunction devices shown in Fig.1, which can be
978-1-5090-6069-6/17/$31.00 ©2017 IEEE
electrically selectable switch/diplexer/duplexer functions,
must be quite useful for achieving joint operation FDD
with TDD. To realize these SPDT multifunctional devices,
two-dimensional switch function block having change-
over capability between the conventional amplitude
switching and the frequency pass-band switching is
eagerly desired.
2-D switch 2-D switch
function function
block block
Fig. 1. Schematic of SPDT multifunctional device using
two-dimensional changeover switch function block
For 5G reconfigurable RF front-end application, since
FETs, as the active devices, must have high power
handling capability of more than several watts, GaN is the
most suitable material for the active device.
In this paper, a novel frequency/amplitude two-
dimensional change-over GaN MMIC switch will be
proposed and demonstrated for electrically selectable
SPDT multifunctional device.
II. EXPERIMENTAL
A. Circuit Configuration
In our previous studies, it has been found that active
composite right-/left-handed transmission line (CRLH-TL)
incorporating field-effect transistors (FETs) have great
potential to change the operating frequency band
dramatically [4]-[6]. Especially, by exchanging a series
capacitor in the unit circuit of CRLH-TL to a gate-
isolating FET, the active CRLH unit circuit indicates
switchable characteristics between a high-pass filter (HPF)
and a low-pass filter (LPF) [5][6]. They were introduced
as an RF switch with low insertion losses in the pass-band
of the LPF and with high isolation in the stopband of the
HPF. In this case, the 0th order shunt resonant frequency of
CRLH unit circuit is unchanged, because the substrate
thickness and the depth and diameter of the via-holes are
fixed by its fabricated structure. In other words, the shunt
capacitance and shunt inductance are constant. Thus, the
resonant frequency doesn’t change. If discrete frequency
bands such as low-band and high-band need to be switched,
the range of resonant frequency change must be magnified.
It can be achieved by adding FETs to the shunt circuits
which makes a change of the 0th order shunt resonance
frequency.
Fig.2 shows the generalized circuit diagram of the
proposed frequency/amplitude two-dimensional change-
over switch. This circuit has a periodic structure. The unit
cell incorporates FET in the shunt circuit of CRLH-TL,
which consist of two series gate-isolated FETs and two
inductors with a shunt gate-isolated FET and a shunt
inductor connected in the middle of two series inductors.
The unit cell is indicated by dashed lines in Fig.2.
capacitor for the pinched-off state and with a resistor for
the open-channel state.
Fig. 3. Simplified gate-isolated FET model
If all FETs in Fig.2 are in the pinched-off state (State1
is symbolized by ONHI), then all FETs are exchanged with
capacitors. In such a case, the equivalent circuit of two-
dimensional changeover switch for state1 (ONHI) can be
expressed as the same circuit of the CRLH-TL shown in
Fig.4. Both series and shunt LC resonant frequencies of
the CRLH-TL are the coincidence to each end frequencies
of the electromagnetic band gap (EBG) region [7].
Ce Le

Ch Lh

Fig. 4. Equivalent circuit of two-dimensional changeover

Fig. 2. Generalized frequency/amplitude two-dimensional switch for state1 (ONHI)
changeover switch circuit diagram

B. Gate Bias States

Rh
Table I shows the summary of gate bias states for Vg1
and Vg2. Vg1 and Vg2 stand for the gate bias voltages for
series FETs and shunt FETs, respectively. As shown in
Table I, there are four bias states with the combination of Fig. 5. Equivalent circuit of two-dimensional changeover
switch for state2 (ONLO)
Vg1 and Vg2.
TABLE I Re
SUMMARY OF GATE BIAS STATES
Gate Series FET Shunt FET
Bias State Symbol Gate Bias Voltage Gate Bias Voltage
Vg1 Vg2
State1 ONHI Low Low
State2 ONLO Low High
State3 OFF1 High Low
Fig. 6. Equivalent circuit of two-dimensional changeover
State4 OFF2 High High
switch for state3 (OFF1)

C. Circuit Theory
Fig.3 shows the simplified gate-isolated FET model.
Since the gate bias circuit must be set to have the high
impedance in order to suppress RF gate leak power, the
gate-isolated FET can be considered a two-terminal device
for higher frequencies such as microwave and millimeter- Fig. 7. Equivalent circuit of two-dimensional changeover
wave. In this model, a FET can be exchanged with a switch for state4 (OFF2)
Generally, for a frequency lower than the EBG region, a
left-handed Bandpass filter (BPF) will be obtained. For a
frequency higher than the EBG region, right-handed BPF
will be observed. State1 provides on-state characteristics.
If the bias voltages change from low to high, LC
resonances will disappear, because the equivalent element
of two-terminal FET model shown in Fig.3 changes from a
capacitor to a resistor. Fig.5 is the disappearance case of
the shunt resonance, which is shown as state2 (ONLO).
State2 also indicates on-state characteristics. State3 (OFF1),
in which no series resonance occurs, is shown in Fig.6. It
indicates off-state characteristics, like the lossy BPF.
Further, there is no resonance in state4 (OFF2), which is
shown in Fig.7. It also presents off-state characteristics,
because the equivalent circuit is the same as a lossy
transformer.
The transmission characteristics S21 of the demonstrated
two-stage two-dimensional changeover switch circuit can
be calculated using the following equations:
Z0
S 21
1 for the pinched-off state.
Z e ,h
jZC e,h
The calculated S21 curves based on the abovementioned
equivalent circuit models are shown in Fig.8.
D. MMIC Design and Fabrication
Since this study was for feasibility check of two-
dimensional switch function block having change-over
capability between the conventional amplitude switching
and the frequency pass-band switching, the design targets
were insertion losses of about 1.5 dB with isolations of
about 15 dB, for both low-band such as 8 GHz and high-
band such as 26 GHz.
Fig.9 shows the schematic diagram of the demonstrated
two-stage frequency/amplitude two-dimensional change-
over single-pole single-throw (SPST) switch circuit. This
circuit is constructed by two unit circuits.
The proposed two-dimensional SPST GaN MMIC
switch has been successfully developed by using of WIN
semiconductor foundry process PP25-00 for 0.25 Pm GaN
high electron mobility transistor (HEMT). The model
   
FA FC Z io2  Z 02  2 FA FC Z 0 Z io  FB FC  FA2 Z io  Z 0   FA FB
parameters of the gate-isolated GaN FET for series
Ze L § ZL Z · configuration have been extracted in advance and
FA  e 1 j ¨¨ e  e ¸¸,
2Z h Lh © Z h 2ZLh ¹ subsequently used for circuit design of the two-stage two-
dimensional change-over switch.
Z 2 L2e Z e2 Z e Le § ZZ L ZL2 Z2 ·
FB     Z e  j¨¨ e e  e  2ZLe  e ¸¸,
Zh 4Z h Lh © Zh Lh 4ZLh ¹

1 1 Ze
FC j , Z io .
Zh ZLh 2

Fig. 9. Schematic diagram of demonstrated two-stage

two-dimensional changeover SPST switch circuit

Fig. 8. Calculated frequency response of S21 for all states

The impedances for the series FET, Ze, and shunt FET, Zh,
change with respect to the gate bias voltages between the
pinched-off state and the open-channel state. Hence, the
Fig. 10. Microphotograph of developed GaN MMIC switch
FET impedance can be expressed as follows:

Z e,h Re,h for the open-channel state, The microphotograph of the demonstrated GaN MMIC
switch is shown in Fig.10. The chip size was 1.3 mm ×
1.75 mm. The gate widths of series FETs and shunt FETs
were 125×6 Pm and 50×2 Pm, respectively. And the line
widths, diameter, line spacing and turn number of the
shunt inductors were 11 Pm, 100 Pm, 5 Pm and 3 turns,
respectively.
E. Measurement
Fig.11 shows the measured S21 frequency response of
the demonstrated two-dimensional change-over SPST
MMIC switch for all states. In this case, the low voltages
were set at -8 V. The high voltages were 0 V.
For state1 (ONHI), the on-state S21 of lower than 1.6 dB
was measured for the frequency band between 25.1 GHz
and 27.5 GHz. Insertion losses of lower than 1.2 dB were
obtained between 7.1 GHz and 9.9 GHz for state2 (ONLO).
At 8.5 GHz, insertion loss of ONHI increased by 4.2 dB
than one of ONLO. At 26.6 GHz, insertion loss of ONLO
increased by 0.9 dB than one of ONHI. Thus, 8-GHz/26-
GHz two frequency-bands change-over characteristics
were successfully demonstrated. For the off-state, isolation
characteristics of higher than 14.1 dB were obtained below
9.9 GHz for state3 (OFF1). Isolation of higher than 13.3
dB was observed for state4 (OFF2) below 27.5 GHz.
Fig. 11. Measured frequency response of S 21 for all states
The proposed two-dimensional change-over MMIC
switch has been successfully demonstrated switching
capability with almost target specifications not only for
amplitude as the conventional switch but also for the
frequency. It was found that the conventional amplitude
switching operation was obtained by controlling the bias
voltage of series FETs, Vg1. On the contrary, the frequency
switching operation was achieved by controlling the bias
voltage of shunt FETs, Vg2. The measured curves indicated
good agreement with the calculated ones shown in Fig.8.
For diplexer and duplexer, higher isolation with low
insertion loss is needed. Multiple cells would provide
higher isolation with relatively lower insertion loss by
using of optimized FET with lower on-resistance and
lower off-capacitance.
III. CONCLUSION
A novel frequency/amplitude two-dimensional change-
over switch circuit was presented. A two-stage GaN
MMIC switch was successfully demonstrated by using of
GaN foundry process, which indicated 8-GHz/26-GHz
band-switchable characteristics with on-state insertion loss
of lower than 1.6 dB. For each frequency band, isolation
of greater than 13.3 dB was obtained. The band-switching
operation can be controlled by changing the bias of shunt
FETs. The demonstrated two-dimensional change-over
GaN MMIC switch successfully showed either the
conventional amplitude switching characteristics or band-
switchable characteristics. The proposed two-dimensional
change-over GaN MMIC switch function blocks will
promise to realize electrically selectable SPDT
multifunctional devices for 5G reconfigurable RF front-
end with low costs.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This work was supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant
Number 17K06407.
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