AlGaN/GaN-based variable gain amplifiers for W-band operation

Author

Diebold, Sebastian ; Muller, Dirk ; Schwantuschke, Dirk ; Wagner, Steffen ; Quay, Ruediger ; Zwick, T. ; Kallfass, I.

Author_Institution

Inst. fur Hochfrequenztech. und Elektron. (IHE), Karlsruhe Inst. of Technol. (KIT), Karlsruhe, Germany

fYear

2013

fDate

2-7 June 2013

Firstpage

1

Lastpage

4

Abstract

In this paper three versions of a variable gain amplifier (VGA) monolithic millimetre-wave integrated circuit (MMIC) are presented. They make use of 100 nm gate-length AlGaN/GaN-based high electron mobility transistors (HEMTs) grown on SiC. The MMICs operate in the 75 to 110 GHz band and have a centre-frequency of 94 GHz. Different phase compensation techniques, which are proposed in literature are applied and their suitability for millimetre-wave (mmW) frequency application is evaluated. We propose an additional phase compensation means leading to our best VGA version providing a gain tuning range from -17.2 to 7 dB with a phase variation of only 12.6 °.

Keywords

III-V semiconductors; MMIC; aluminium compounds; amplifiers; gallium compounds; high electron mobility transistors; silicon compounds; wide band gap semiconductors; AlGaN-GaN; HEMT; MMIC; SiC; VGA; W-band operation; frequency 75 GHz to 110 GHz; frequency 94 GHz; gain tuning range; high electron mobility transistor; millimetre-wave frequency application; monolithic millimetre-wave integrated circuit; phase compensation technique; variable gain amplifier; Gain; Gain control; Logic gates; Power generation; Power transmission lines; Transistors; Transmission line measurements; GaN; Gallium nitride; HEMTs; MMICs; Power amplifiers; VGA; gain control; phase control; phase shifters; variable gain amplifier;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Microwave Symposium Digest (IMS), 2013 IEEE MTT-S International

Conference_Location

Seattle, WA

ISSN

0149-645X

Print_ISBN

978-1-4673-6177-4

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/MWSYM.2013.6697340

Filename

6697340