A Self-bias Ku-band 1-Watt PHEMT Power Amplifier MMIC With A Compact Source Capacitor

In this paper, the design of a self-bias 1.8 mm AlGaAs/InGaAs/GaAs PHEMT with a compact source capacitor for operation in Ku-band frequency is described. Based on the proposed device, a self-bias Ku-band 1-W two-stage power amplifier MMIC is also demonstrated. Under single bias condition of 8 V and 630 mA, the self-bias MMIC possesses 14.2 dB small-signal gain, 30.2 dBm output power at 1-dB gain compression point with 19.2% power added efficiency and 31.3 dBm saturated output power with 22.5% power added efficiency at 14 GHz. With the performance comparable to the dual-bias MMIC counterpart, the proposed self-bias MMIC is more attractive to system designers on VSAT applications.