Ck. Sun et al., PHOTOVOLTAIC-FET FOR OPTOELECTRONIC RF MU-WAVE SWITCHING/, IEEE transactions on microwave theory and techniques, 44(10), 1996, pp. 1747-1750
A photovoltaic-FET (PV-PET) is demonstrated for RF/mu wave switching w
ith performance improved over other optoelectronic switches reported w
hile operating with 10-100 times less optical power, The PV-FET charac
teristics were 3 Omega on-resistance, > 30 M Omega off-resistance unde
r <1 mW optical power, and 300 fF switch capacitance, This PV-FET was
inductor tuned at 790 MHz and 7.4 GHz to enhance isolation, intended f
or reconfigurable antenna applications, The measured insertion loss an
d isolation agree well with those from theoretical calculation and num
erical circuit simulation based on the switch parameters, The measured
switch rise and fall times were 20 mu s and 2 mu s, respectively, Con
trolled by light via optical fiber, the PV-FET can be used for remote
RF/mu wave switching control with no electrical bias, complete electro
magnetic, and good thermal isolation.