Title :
A monolithic Ka-band HEMT low-noise amplifier
Author :
Yuen, Cindy ; Nishimoto, Clifford K. ; Glenn, Michael W. ; Pao, Yi-ching ; Larue, Ross A. ; Norton, Robert ; Day, Mary ; Zubeck, Irene ; Bandy, Steve G. ; Zdasiuk, George A.
Author_Institution :
Device Lab., Varian Res. Center, Palo Alto, CA, USA
Abstract :
A monolithic, single-stage HEMT low-noise amplifier has been developed for the 20-40-GHz band. it includes a single 0.25- mu m-gate-length HEMT active device with on-chip matching and biasing circuits. A gain of approximately 6 dB from 20 to 38 GHz and a noise figure of approximately 5 dB from 26.5 to 40 GHz were measured. Replacing the triangular gate profile by a mushroom gate profile in the amplifier increased the measured gain to 8 dB from 20 to 37 GHz and reduced the measured noise figure to 4 dB from 26 to 40 GHz. These are the best reported results for a MMIC amplifier over this bandwidth. The chip size is 2.2 mm*1.1 mm. The same amplifier was fabricated on pseudomorphic HEMT material with a triangular gate profile and achieved 7.5-dB gain across the 20-35-GHz bandwidth and a 6.0-dB noise figure from 26.5 to 40 GHz. The measured 1-dB compression powers at 30 GHz for the conventional and pseudomorphic HEMT amplifiers are 10 dBM and 11.5 dBM, respectively, when biased for maximum power.<>
Keywords :
MMIC; field effect integrated circuits; high electron mobility transistors; microwave amplifiers; 0.25 micron; 20 to 40 GHz; 4 to 6 dB; 6 to 8 dB; EHF; HEMT; Ka-band; LNA; MMIC amplifier; SHF; biasing circuits; low-noise amplifier; monolithic microwave IC; mushroom gate profile; onchip matching circuit; single-stage; submicron gate lengths; triangular gate profile; Bandwidth; Circuits; Gain measurement; HEMTs; Low-noise amplifiers; MMICs; Noise figure; Noise measurement; PHEMTs; Semiconductor device measurement;
Journal_Title :
Microwave Theory and Techniques, IEEE Transactions on
