Measurement of a 270 GHz Low Noise Amplifier With 7.5 dB Noise Figure

We describe the measurement of the noise of a 270-GHz low noise amplifier using wafer-probe techniques. The measurement includes deembedding to the coplanar waveguide input of the chip. The noise was measured at a variety of bias conditions and found to be a minimum of 7.5 dB. The gain of the chip is measured to be 11.4 dB, consistent with -parameter measurements of the same device. This is the highest frequency measurement of noise of a monolithic microwave integrated circuit amplifier and the only known on-wafer measurement of noise at this frequency. The measurement demonstrates that wafer probe techniques developed at lower frequencies can be applied to circuits at submillimeter wavelengths.