Integrated power amplifier for 60 GHz wireless applications

This paper presents an integrated power amplifier for the 60 GHz frequency range. The amplifier was fabricated with a commercially available 0.15 /spl mu/m gate length pseudomorphic HEMT process. The output stage consists of two 6/spl times/35 /spl mu/m PHEMTs, forming a total output periphery of 420 /spl mu/m. The MMIC amplifier was simulated, fabricated and measured both on-wafer and in a split block package. The amplifier was characterized using linear and nonlinear methods. The odd mode stability was carefully analyzed. Large-signal scattering parameters were measured with on-wafer probes. The measured gain was 13.4 dB and 1 dB output compression point was at +17 dBm power level using 3.0 V supply voltage. The AM/AM and AM/PM characteristics were extracted from the large-signal S-parameter results. Finally, the amplifier chip was mounted in a split block package, which has WR-15 wave guide input and output interface. The measured results show 12.5 dB small-signal gain and better than 8 dB return losses in input and output for the packaged amplifier chip.