  Gallium Arsenide Microwave Amplifier.
This is one of the micro-circuits inside a Celeritek CTR-990126 CPW microwave transceiver seen up close (see previous sample for an overall view).
At microwave frequencies the shape of everything matters, and signals a nearly as happy to travel through air as they are through wire. Notice how in some places the signal path clearly continues across gaps where there is no wire: Interwoven loops of wire act like transmitting and receiving antennas, or if you will like capacitors, that are able to pass only very high-frequency signals.
I'm not an expert in microwave circuitry so I can't tell you exactly what each of these components is, but somewhere in there are gallium arsenide transistors and diodes.
Source: eBay seller time-warp
Contributor: Theodore Gray
Acquired: 24 March, 2009
Text Updated: 25 March, 2009
Price: $50
Size: 4"
Composition: GaAs
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