Designing gallium nitride-based monolithic microwave integrated circuits for the Ka, V, and W bands

Abstract

A technology for fabricating multifunction monolithic microwave integrated circuits (MMICs) based on gallium nitride (GaN) heterostructures, which operate at the frequency range up to 100 GHz (the Ka, V, and W bands), is developed. Power amplifier (PA) MMICs operating at 90 GHz are fabricated using the coplanar technology with the gain coefficient being up to 15 dB and the specific output power exceeding 500 mW/mm. In addition, microstrip technology with the use of the polymer dielectric and grounding metallization over the wafer surface without through holes in the substrate is approved. The parameters of the MMICs for multifunction single-chip transmit-receive modules (TRMs), as well as the parameters of the MMICs for intermediate-frequency amplifiers (IFAs), voltage-controlled oscillators (VCOs), low noise amplifiers (LNAs), PAs, and balanced mixers operating in the Ka and V bands (up to 70 GHz), which are fabricated using the proposed technology, are presented.