The Design Of Ultra Narrow-Band Amplifiers Using Small Signal Varactor Up-Converters For ESM, ECM, ECCM, And ELINT Applications

By Dr. Alfred I. Grayzel, Dr. Ashok (Ash) K. Gorwara, Paul Kuhn, Planar Monolithics Industries, Inc.

A method is presented in this paper for realizing tunable amplifiers with bandwidths of less than 0.5%; without the use of superconductors and cryogenic cooling. This method uses a small signal varactor up-converter to achieve these ultra narrow bandwidths. The equivalent circuit for the up-converter is presented as well as the circuit configuration of the narrow band negative resistance amplifier. The design and experimental results are presented for a 0.5% bandwidth negative resistance amplifier at 800 MHz; using this unique circuit design. These devices and circuits can be used for electronic warfare applications such as surveillance, electronic reconnaissance, jamming and frequency hopping.