Coplanar millimeter-wave ICs for W-band applications using 0.15 μm pseudomorphic MODFETs

Author

Schlechtweg, Michael ; Haydl, William H. ; Bangert, Axel ; Braunstein, Jürgen ; Tasker, Paul J. ; Verweyen, Ludger ; Massler, Hülsmann ; Bronner, Wolfgang ; Hulsmann, Axel ; Köhler, Klaus

Author_Institution

Fraunhofer Inst. for Appl. Solid State Phys., Freiburg, Germany

Volume

31

Issue

10

fYear

1996

fDate

10/1/1996 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

1426

Lastpage

1434

Abstract

A small signal S-parameter and noise model for the cascode MODFET has been validated up to 120 GHz, allowing predictable monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC) design up to W-band. The potential of coplanar waveguide technology to build compact, high performance system modules is demonstrated by means of passive and active MMIC components. The realized passive structures comprise a Wilkinson combiner/divider and a capacitively loaded ultra miniature branch line coupler. For both building blocks, very good agreement between the measured and modeled data is achieved up to 120 GHz. Based on the accurate design database, two versions of compact integrated amplifiers utilizing cascode devices for application in the 90-120 GHz frequency range were designed and fabricated. The MMICs have 26.3 dB and 20 dB gain at 91 GHz and 110 GHz, respectively. A noise figure of 6.4 dB was measured at 110 GHz. The 90-100 GHz amplifier was integrated with an MMIC tunable oscillator resulting in a W-band source delivering more than 6 dBm output power from 94 to 98 GHz

Keywords

HEMT integrated circuits; MMIC amplifiers; MMIC oscillators; S-parameters; coplanar waveguides; equivalent circuits; field effect MIMIC; integrated circuit design; integrated circuit noise; millimetre wave amplifiers; millimetre wave oscillators; semiconductor device models; voltage-controlled oscillators; 0.15 micron; 20 dB; 26.3 dB; 6.4 dB; 90 to 120 GHz; CPW technology; EHF; MIMIC design; W-band MM-wave source; W-band applications; Wilkinson combiner/divider; capacitively loaded branch line coupler; cascode MODFET; compact integrated amplifiers; coplanar millimeter-wave IC; coplanar waveguide; passive MIMIC components; pseudomorphic MODFET; small signal S-parameter model; small signal noise model; tunable oscillator; Integrated circuit modeling; Integrated circuit noise; MMICs; MODFET circuits; MODFET integrated circuits; Millimeter wave integrated circuits; Millimeter wave technology; Power amplifiers; Predictive models; Scattering parameters;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Solid-State Circuits, IEEE Journal of

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9200

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/4.540051

Filename

540051