Metamorphic HEMT amplifier for K- and Ka-band applications

Author

Varonen, Mikko ; Kärkkäinen, Mikko ; Kangaslahti, Pekka ; Halonen, Kari

Author_Institution

Lab. for Electron. Circuit Design, Helsinki Univ. of Technol., Espoo, Finland

Volume

1

fYear

2005

fDate

28 Aug.-2 Sept. 2005

Abstract

This paper presents an integrated high gain two-stage amplifier covering frequency range from 18 GHz to 40 GHz. The chip was manufactured using a commercially available 0.15 μm GaAs based metamorphic HEMT technology and the chip size is 2.1 mm × 1.1 mm. Parallel resistive feedback is used for obtaining a broadband and flat gain response and for stabilizing the amplifier. We measured in on-wafer tests for the amplifier a small-signal gain of 22.5 ± 2.5 dB at K- and Ka-bands. The measured 1 dB output compression point is better than +13 dBm at K-band and better than +9.5 dBm at Ka-band using a low 2.5 volts supply. In addition, we measured 10 amplifier chips to verify the performance variation from chip to chip. The measurements showed a maximum of 2 dB deviation in small-signal gain.

Keywords

HEMT integrated circuits; III-V semiconductors; gallium arsenide; microwave amplifiers; microwave integrated circuits; millimetre wave amplifiers; millimetre wave integrated circuits; 0.15 micron; 18 to 40 GHz; 2.5 V; GaAs; K-band application; Ka-band application; amplifier chips; broadband gain response; flat gain response; high gain two-stage amplifier; metamorphic HEMT amplifier; on-wafer testing; output compression point; parallel resistive feedback; small-signal gain; Broadband amplifiers; Feedback; Frequency; Gain measurement; Gallium arsenide; K-band; Manufacturing; Semiconductor device measurement; Testing; mHEMTs;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Circuit Theory and Design, 2005. Proceedings of the 2005 European Conference on

Print_ISBN

0-7803-9066-0

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/ECCTD.2005.1522958

Filename

1522958