Monolithic Microwave Integrated Circuit Amplifier Research Articles

A Ka-Band 6-W High Power MMIC Amplifier with High Linearity for VSAT Applications

A Ka-band 6-W high power microwave monolithic integrated circuit amplifier for use in a very small aperture terminal system requiring high linearity is designed and fabricated using commercial 0.15-μm GaAs pHEMT technology. This three-stage amplifier, with a chip size of 22.1 mm2 can achieve a saturated output power of 6 W with a 21% power-added efficiency and 15-dB small signal gain over a frequency range of 28.5 GHz to 30.5 GHz. To obtain high linearity, the amplifier employs a class-A bias and demonstrates an output third-order intercept point of greater than 43.5 dBm over the above-mentioned frequency range.

Design, modeling and characterization of MMIC integrated cascode cell for compact Ku-band power amplifiers

This paper reports on the design of a new power cell dedicated to Ku-band power amplifier (PA) applications. This cell called “integrated cascode” has been designed in order to propose a strong decrease in terms of circuit size for PA. The technology used relies on 0.25-μm GaAs pseudomorphic high electron mobility transistors (PHEMT) of United Monolithic Semiconductors (UMS) foundry. A distributed approach is proposed in order to model this power cell. The challenge consists of obtaining, with a better shape factor (ratio between the vertical and horizontal sizes of the transistor), the same performances than a single transistor with the same gate width. In order to design a 2W amplifier, we have used two 12 × 100 μm transistors. Cascode vertical size is 413 μm whereas a transistor with the same gate width exhibits a vertical size of 790 μm. Therefore, the shape factor is nearly one as compared to a shape factor of 4 for a classical parallel architecture. This new device allows us to decrease the Monolithic microwave integrated circuit amplifier area of 40% compared to amplifier based on single transistors.

An 8-W 250-MHz to 3-GHz Decade-Bandwidth Low-Noise GaN MMIC Feedback Amplifier With > +51-dBm OIP3

This paper describes a GaN monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC) cascode feedback amplifier design which achieves up to 8 W of output power and greater than +51 dBm OIP3 across a 250-3000-MHz decade bandwidth. The LNA also achieves 20 dB of flat-gain across the band. The design was fabricated with a 0.25-μm GaN HEMT technology with an fT ~ 50 GHz and a BVgd >; 60 V. A 40-V 750-mA high-bias LNA design achieves an OIP3 of 51.9 dBm, P1dB of 38.5 dBm, and NF ~ 3 dB at 2 GHz . A 40-V 500-mA medium-bias LNA design achieves a lower NF ~ 2.5 dB , an OIP3 of 48.4 dBm, and a P1dB of 36.8 dBm at the same frequency. At an optimum low-noise bias of 20 V and 300 mA, a NF ~ 0.96 dB, an OIP3 of 43.4 dBm, and a linear P1dB of ~32.2 dBm was also obtained. The combination of high OIP3 and low NF from these GaN MMIC LNA designs exceed that achieved by many state-of-the-art PHEMT, HBT, and HFET technologies for decade-BW MMIC amplifiers operating in the popular wireless and wire-line S- and C-band frequency ranges. The linear GaN LNA performance demonstrated here can enable new generations of software-defined and reconfigurable radios which require ultra-linearity over multiple octaves of bandwidth.

A 1–12‐GHz variable‐gain low‐noise amplifier MMIC using 0.25‐μm SiGe BiCMOS technology

AbstractThis article introduces an 1–12‐GHz differential two‐stage variable‐gain low‐noise amplifier (VGLNA) using 0.25‐μm SiGe:C BiCMOS commercial process technology for ultra‐wideband system.The results of the fabricated monolithic microwave integrated circuit amplifier show 18‐dB gain with a 3‐dB frequency band of 1.3–11.9 GHz and noise figure of less than 5 dB under the bias condition of 2.5‐V supply voltage and 55‐mW total dc power consumption. The gain‐control range is from −17 dB to +18 dB. The chip size of the manufactured VGLNA is 1.1 × 0.9 mm2 including all testing pads for RF and dc probes. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 54:1935–1937, 2012; View this article online at wileyonlinelibrary.com. DOI 10.1002/mop.26936

Cryogenic Low-Noise mHEMT-Based MMIC Amplifiers for 4–12 GHz Band

Two broadband very low-noise amplifiers operating in the frequency range from 4 to 12 GHz at cryogenic temperature are presented. The amplifier circuits have been developed using a 100 nm gate length InAlAs/InGaAs metamorphic high electron mobility transistor (mHEMT) technology. The three-stage amplifiers are monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC) chips manufactured in coplanar technology. At cryogenic temperature the first MMIC amplifier achieved a linear gain of 22 dB and an average noise temperature of 11.6 K with a power dissipation of 41 mW. The second MMIC amplifier, with external input matching network, exhibited a gain of 26 dB, and an excellent average noise temperature of 8.1 K with a power dissipation of 12 mW. Both LNA units demonstrate broad bandwidth, high gain, low noise temperature, and compact chip size. The results obtained prove that mHEMT technology is suitable for applications in large instantaneous bandwidth cryogenic receivers for radio astronomy applications.

Operational Performances Demonstration of Polymer-Ceramic Embedded Capacitors for MMIC Applications

Embedded passives are becoming increasingly important for the manufacture of highly integrated electronic boards and packages. The need for embedded passives emerges from the growing consumer demand for product miniaturization thus requiring smaller components and space efficient packaging. This can be realized by replacing discrete components that demand a higher volume than embedded passives. Embedded passives have already been investigated in the last few years. However, nowadays used dielectric materials have to be optimized in order to improve the performances of the passive components in terms of dielectric behavior and reliability. The most promising candidates for dielectric materials applied for embedded passives are polymer-ceramic nanocomposites. In this paper, the robustness of embedded capacitors using such commercial dielectrics regarding the environmental conditions (temperature and humidity) is studied. Microwave measurements performed on an embedded structure design for low noise amplifier microwave monolithic integrated circuit decoupling allow to demonstrate clearly the capacity of this new technology.

Broadband AlGaN/GaN MMIC amplifier

A broadband Monolithic Microwave Integrated Circuit (MMIC) amplifier, with 12 ± 2 dB gain across the 0.1–27 GHz band has been demonstrated using the AlGaN/GaN on SiC technology. The amplifier design employs a non-conventional, series-DC/RF-High Electron Mobility Transistor (HEMT) configuration. This configuration provides an alternative design to the conventional traveling-wave amplifier (TWA). It results in a smaller MMIC chip size, and extends amplifier gain to the low-frequency region. The amplifier MMIC utilizes four HEMT devices in series and could be biased at voltages up to 120 V.

A 1–25 GHz GaN HEMT MMIC Low-Noise Amplifier

This letter presents an ultra-wideband low noise amplifier (LNA) using gallium-nitride (GaN) high-electron mobility transistors (HEMT) technology. A -3 dB bandwidth of 1-25 GHz with 13 dB peak power gain is achieved using a modified resistive-feedback topology. To obtain such a wide bandwidth, several bandwidth enhancement techniques are utilized. An inductor connected to the source of the input transistor ensures good input matching (|S11| <; -9 dB) across the entire bandwidth. The shunt feedback loop and the inductive source degeneration minimize all the required inductor values. This GaN HEMT LNA is believed to have the widest bandwidth among all GaN HEMT monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC) LNAs reported to date. With 3.3 dB minimum noise figure (F), 33.5 dBm maximum output-referred third-order intercept point (OIP3), 20 dBm maximum output-referred 1 dB compression point (Output P1 dB), this MMIC amplifier is comparable in performance to distributed amplifiers (DAs) but with significantly lower power consumption and smaller area.

A Compact Ku-Band SiGe Power Amplifier MMIC With On-Chip Active Biasing

A Ku-band power amplifier monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC) with an output power density of 726 mW/mm2 is demonstrated using 0.25 ?m SiGe BiCMOS technology. No inductor matching scheme is applied to minimize the MMIC size, but an active biasing topology is used to enhance the power-added efficiency (PAE) and linearity of the MMIC. The fabricated one-stage cascode power amplifier MMIC, including input/output matching and biasing circuits, has a compact size of 0.384 mm2 (0.6 mm × 0.64 mm), and exhibits a saturated output power (Psat) of 24.45 dBm and a PAE of 29.1 % at 14 GHz.

High linearity 5.2-GHz power amplifier MMIC using CPW structure technology with a linearizer circuit

A built-in linearizer was applied to improve the linearity in a 5.2-GHz power amplifier microwave monolithic integrated circuit (MMIC), which was undertaken with 0.15-μm AlGaAs/InGaAs D-mode PHEMT technology. The power amplifier (PA) was studied taking into account the linearizer circuit and the coplanar waveguide (CPW) structures. Based on these technologies, the power amplifier, which has a chip size of 1.44 × 1.10 mm2, obtained an output power of 13.3 dBm and a power gain of 14 dB in the saturation region. An input third-order intercept point (HP3) of −3 dBm, an output third-order intercept point (OIP3) of 21.1 dBm and a power added efficiency (PAE) of 22% were attained, respectively. Finally, the overall power characterization exhibited high gain and high linearity, which illustrates that the power amplifier has a compact circuit size and exhibits favorable RF characteristics. This power circuit demonstrated high RF characterization and could be used for microwave power circuit applications at 5.2 GHz.

Design and realization of GaN RF-devices and circuits from 1 to 30 GHz

The design, realization, and characterization of highly efficient powerbars and monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC) high-power amplifiers (HPAs) with AlGaN/GaN high electronic mobility transistors (HEMTs) are presented for the frequency range between 1 and 30 GHz. Packaged powerbars for the frequency range between 1 and 6 GHz have been developed based on a process called GaN50 with a gate length of 0.5 μm. Based on a GaN25 process with a gate length of 0.25 μm, high-power MMIC amplifiers are presented starting from 6 GHz up to advanced X-band amplifiers and robust LNAs in microstrip transmission line technology.

Group Delay Equalized UWB InGaP/GaAs HBT MMIC Amplifier Using Negative Group Delay Circuits

A negative group delay (NGD) circuit has been employed to equalize a group delay variation in a broadband ultra-wideband (UWB) InGaP/GaAs heterojunction bipolar transistor (HBT) monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC) amplifier. Using the NGD circuit, a part of a salient group delay characteristic in the operation band of broadband amplifiers can be suppressed without an increase of the entire group delay. The MMIC amplifier has a steep group delay increase in the lower frequency region of the full-band UWB band (3.1-10.6 GHz) due to the sum of phase variations near the cutoff frequencies of the HBTs. The NGD circuit has been inserted to reduce this increase of the group delay in the UWB band. By adding a three-cell NGD circuit while considering input and output matching at the input side of the MMIC amplifier, the group delay variation is decreased by 78%. However, gain was also decreased by insertion of the multistage NGD circuit. In an attempt to avoid this decrease in gain, a one-cell NGD circuit was inserted into the feedback loop of the MMIC amplifier, and as a result, we were able to decrease the group delay variation by 79%, with minimal gain deterioration.

Ku-Band Power Amplifier MMIC Chipset with On-Chip Active Gate Bias Circuit

We propose a Ku-band driver and high-power amplifier monolithic microwave integrated circuits (MMICs) employing a compensating gate bias circuit using a commercial 0.5 μm GaAs pHEMT technology. The integrated gate bias circuit provides compensation for the threshold voltage and temperature variations as well as independence of the supply voltage variations. A fabricated two-stage Ku-band driver amplifier MMIC exhibits a typical output power of 30.5 dBm and power-added efficiency (PAE) of 37% over a 13.5 GHz to 15.0 GHz frequency band, while a fabricated three-stage Ku-band high-power amplifier MMIC exhibits a maximum saturated output power of 39.25 dBm (8.4 W) and PAE of 22.7% at 14.5 GHz.

Group delay equalised monolithic microwave integrated circuit amplifier for ultra-wideband based on right/left-handed transmission line design approach

A group delay equalised InGaP/GaAs HBT monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC) amplifier with an active balun for ultra-wideband (UWB) application has been developed. The MMIC consists of a broadband amplifier with an active balun and a group delay equaliser. The group delay equaliser was designed based on a theory using a composite right/left-handed (CRLH) transmission line. Adding a right-handed (RH) transmission line to a CRLH transmission line in parallel, a convex group delay characteristic is realised. Since various UWB components have concave group delay characteristics, the group delay equaliser can compensate a concave group delay characteristic of the amplifier in an operation frequency band. In this paper, dispersion, group delay and impedance characteristics for the proposed CRLH/RH circuit have been theoretically analysed. Moreover, a minimised group delay equaliser circuit on an MMIC has been designed and fabricated based on the proposed CRLH/RH circuit. A fabricated group delay equalised InGaP/GaAs HBT MMIC amplifier with an active balun exhibited an improved group delay characteristic compared with the MMIC amplifier without the group delay equaliser. The standard deviations of group delays for a frequency variation in a gain band were decreased from 12.8 to 5.5 ps at S 21 and decreased from 10.3 to 7.3 ps at S 31 .

Linearity Improvement of a Power Amplifier Using a Series LC Resonant Circuit

A radio frequency power amplifier microwave monolithic integrated circuit with a series LC resonant circuit as well as a bias control circuit for wide-band code division multiple access application is presented. The linearizer that consists of a series LC resonant circuit and base-emitter junction of a bias transistor operates as a diode rectifier circuit. A comparison between the circuits with and without the linearizer has been demonstrated. The power amplifier (PA) with the series LC resonant linearizer exhibits adjacent channel leakage ratio-1 (ACLR1) of -37.2 dBc at output power of 27 dBm, a 5.6 dB improvement compared to the circuit without the linearizer. The bias control circuit reduces consumed average dc current from 83 mA to 57 mA for efficiency improvement. The linearized PA exhibits 1-dB compression point (P <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">1</sub> dB) of 29.3 dBm, power-added efficiency of 45.7%, and power gain of 20.6 dB at low quiescent current of 37 mA with a 3.4 V single supply.

2–8 GHz 8-W Power Amplifier MMIC Developed Using MSAG MESFET Technology

Design approach and test data for a two-octave bandwidth HPA developed using GaAs based multifunction self aligned gate metal semiconductor field effect transistor with multilevel plating monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC) technology are presented. A low loss matching design technique was used in the development of a two-stage power amplifier. The broadband amplifier has exhibited 8 W power output and better than 16% PAE over the 2.0-8.0 GHz frequency range. To our knowledge, these results represent the state-of-the-art in output power for multi-octave S/C-band power MMIC amplifiers.

Measurement of a 270 GHz Low Noise Amplifier With 7.5 dB Noise Figure

We describe the measurement of the noise of a 270-GHz low noise amplifier using wafer-probe techniques. The measurement includes deembedding to the coplanar waveguide input of the chip. The noise was measured at a variety of bias conditions and found to be a minimum of 7.5 dB. The gain of the chip is measured to be 11.4 dB, consistent with -parameter measurements of the same device. This is the highest frequency measurement of noise of a monolithic microwave integrated circuit amplifier and the only known on-wafer measurement of noise at this frequency. The measurement demonstrates that wafer probe techniques developed at lower frequencies can be applied to circuits at submillimeter wavelengths.

35-nm InP HEMT SMMIC Amplifier With 4.4-dB Gain at 308 GHz

rdquoWe report the first submillimeter-wave monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC) amplifier with 4.4-dB measured gain at 308-GHz frequency, making it the highest frequency MMIC amplifier reported to date. In this letter, a 35-nm InP high-electron mobility transistor process has been successfully developed with a projected maximum available gain of greater than 7 dB at 300 GHz. The excellent dc and RF performance makes it suitable for applications at frequencies well into the millimeter-wave band and, for the first time, in the submillimeter- wave band as well.

Study and Design Optimization of Multiharmonic Transmission-Line Load Networks for Class-E and Class-F $K$-Band MMIC Power Amplifiers

A design-oriented analysis of microwave transmission-line class-E and class-F amplifiers is presented in this paper. Multiharmonic transmission-line load networks are analyzed and compared in terms of harmonic suppression and their effects on output power and efficiency. Based on this study, a design of highly efficient monolithic-microwave integrated-circuit amplifiers has been carried out. To allow circuit optimization and to simplify the design process, analytic expressions were derived for the most practical multiharmonic transmission-line networks. Fabricated amplifiers achieve state-of-the-art efficiency of 56.2% and 59.0% for class-E and class-F operation at K-band for power levels of 19.1 and 20.0 dBm, respectively. Moreover, without the need for supplementary filtering sections, harmonic suppression for operation well into compression is better than -25 and -30 dBc for the transmission-line class-F and class-E amplifiers, respectively.

345 GHZ PROTOTYPE SIS MIXER WITH INTEGRATED MMIC LNA

We report on heterodyne measurements at submillimeter wavelengths using a receiver with a Superconductor-Insulator-Superconductor (SIS) mixer device and a Microwave Monolithic Integrated Circuit (MMIC) cryogenic low noise amplifier (LNA) module integrated into the same block. The mixer characterization presented in this work demonstrates the feasibility of operating a MMIC LNA in close proximity to the SIS device without penalty in mixer performance due to heating effects. Verification of this functionality is crucial for the ongoing development of SuperCam, a 64-pixel focal plane array receiver consisting of eight, 1 × 8 integrated mixer/LNA modules. The test setup included a mixer block modified to accept a MMIC amplifier. Our tests show that the LNA can be operated over a broad range of Vdrain voltages from 0.40–1.40 V, corresponding to dissipative powers of 2.6–29 mW. We observe no significant effect on the measured uncorrected receiver noise temperatures in the 345 GHz band.