Monolithic Microwave Integrated Circuit Amplifier Research Articles

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.

A 38–46 GHz MMIC Doherty Power Amplifier Using Post-Distortion Linearization

This letter describes the first demonstration of a fully integrated Doherty power amplifier (PA) monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC) with post-distortion linearization at millimeter-wave (MMW) frequency band. The Doherty amplifier MMIC, using a 0.15-mum GaAs HEMT process, achieves a small signal gain of 7dB from 38 to 46GHz with a compact chip size of 2mm <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sup> . The saturation output power of the Doherty amplifier is 21.8dBm. The similar topology between the Doherty amplifier and post-distortion linearization makes it possible to improve efficiency and linearity simultaneously in MMW PA designs. After gate bias optimization of the main and peaking amplifier, the drain efficiency improved 6% at 6-dB output back-off and the inter-modulation distortion (IMD) of quasi Doherty amplifier can be improved 18dB at 42GHz compared with the balanced amplifier operation

0.7–2.7-GHz 12-W Power-Amplifier MMIC Developed Using MLP Technology

A design approach and test data for a broadband high-power amplifier monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC) developed using MSAG MESFETs with multilevel-plating technology are presented. A low-loss matching design technique was used in the development of a two-stage amplifier. The UHF/L/S-band amplifier has exhibited greater than 12-W power output and better than 22% power-added efficiency over the 0.7-2.7-GHz frequency range. To our knowledge, these power results represent the state-of-the-art in multioctave high-power MMIC amplifiers

Analysis of the Survivability of GaN Low-Noise Amplifiers

This paper presents a detailed analysis of the stressing mechanisms for highly rugged low-noise GaN monolithic-microwave integrated-circuit amplifiers operated at extremely high input powers. As an example, a low-noise amplifier (LNA) operating in the 3-7-GHz frequency band is used. A noise figure (NF) below 2.3 dB is measured from 3.5 to 7 GHz with NF<1.8 dB between 5-7 GHz. This device survived 33 dBm of available RF input power for 16 h without any change in low-noise performance. The stress mechanisms at high input powers are identified by systematic measurements of an LNA and a single high electron-mobility transistor in the frequency and time domains. It is shown that the gate dc current, which occurs due to self-biasing, is the most critical factor regarding survivability. A series resistance in the gate dc feed can reduce this gate current by feedback, and may be used to improve LNA ruggedness

A single-supply Ku-band 1-W power amplifier MMIC with compact self-bias PHEMTs

In this letter, the design of a self-bias 1.8-mm AlGaAs/InGaAs/GaAs pseudomorphic high electron mobility transistor with a compact source capacitor for operation in Ku-band frequency is described. Based on the proposed device, a self-bias Ku-band 1-W two-stage power amplifier monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC) is also demonstrated. Under a single bias condition of 8 V and 630 mA, the self-bias MMIC possesses 14.2-dB small-signal gain, 30.2-dBm output power at 1-dB gain compression point with 19.2% power added efficiency and 31.3-dBm saturated output power with 22.5% power added efficiency at 14GHz. With the performance comparable to the dual-bias MMIC counterpart, the proposed self-bias MMIC is more attractive to system designers on very small aperture terminal applications.

A vector intermodulation analyzer applied to behavioral modeling of nonlinear amplifiers with memory

A large signal vector intermodulation network analyzer with a dynamic range of 90 dB and phase resolution of better than 2/spl deg/ is reported. The analyzer is used in conjunction with a multislice behavioral model to characterize memory effects in three different RF power amplifiers: an MOSFET instrumentation amplifier, a multistage GaAs/silicon-based broadband microwave integrated-circuit amplifier, and an SiGe HBT monolithic-microwave integrated-circuit amplifier. The multislice behavioral model architecture builds on conventional single-tone AM-AM and AM-PM modeling extended to capture long-term memory effects that are characterized by asymmetric intermodulation distortion (IMD). Phase asymmetries of upper and lower IMD are captured. A systematic procedure for extracting the model is presented.

A low-voltage and variable-gain distributed amplifier for 3.1-10.6 GHz UWB systems

A low-voltage and variable-gain distributed amplifier is presented in this letter. This microwave monolithic integrated circuit amplifier achieves 12-dB gain with a 3-dB frequency band of 1.6-12.1GHz and 6.5-dB noise figure under the bias condition of 0.8-V supply voltage and 6.4-mW total dc power consumption. The gain-control range is from -18dB to +20dB. Resistive metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors are used as termination resistors to compensate the mismatch due to different bias conditions. From 3.1 to 10.6GHz, the maximum gain ripple of this amplifier is only /spl plusmn/1dB for the gain level between -4 and 20dB.

Precision measurement method for cryogenic amplifier noise temperatures below 5 K

We report precision measurements of the effective input noise temperature of a cryogenic (liquid-helium temperature) monolithic-microwave integrated-circuit amplifier at the amplifier reference planes within the cryostat. A method is given for characterizing and removing the effect of the transmission lines between the amplifier reference planes and the input and output connectors of the cryostat. In conjunction with careful noise measurements, this method enables us to measure amplifier noise temperatures below 5 K with an uncertainty of 0.3 K. The particular amplifier that was measured exhibits a noise temperature below 5.5 K from 1 to 11 GHz, attaining a minimum value of 2.3 K/spl plusmn/0.3 K at 7 GHz. This corresponds to a noise figure of 0.034 dB/spl plusmn/0.004 dB. The measured amplifier gain is between 33.4 dB/spl plusmn/0.3 dB and 35.8 dB/spl plusmn/0.3 dB over the 1-12-GHz range.

A Multiband, Compact, and Full-Duplex Beam Scanning Antenna Transceiver System Operating From 10 to 35 GHz

This paper presents a compact phased-array antenna transceiver system that can operate over a wide bandwidth from 10 to 35 GHz with the abilities of beam scanning and full-duplex communication. The system consists of ultrawide-band Vivaldi antennas, a multiline PET-based phase shifter, a six-channel microstrip multiplexer, and monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC) amplifiers. The multiplexer routes 10, 19, and 32 GHz signals to the transmit path and 12, 21, and 35 GHz signals to the receive path. The multiplexer shows insertion loss between 2.2 and 3.4 dB for all six channels and together with wide-band MMIC amplifiers plays an important role to build a compact, multifrequency, and full-duplex transceiver system. The system should have many applications in multiband satellite communication systems and radar systems.

Investigation of drain-line loss and the S22 kink effect in capacitively coupled distributed amplifiers

This paper investigates the practical limits of the capacitively coupled distributed amplifier (DA) in terms of common-source output impedance. It is shown that the output impedance of the common-source device is considerably affected by the input coupling circuit. The S22 kink effect is more pronounced in the case of the capacitively coupled circuit. The effect on drain-line loss is very marked, and becomes the practical limitation of the technique. The effect is clearly illustrated by practical measurements on a 45-MHz-20-GHz GaAs monolithic-microwave integrated-circuit amplifier. The kink effect is also shown to be relevant to the output impedance and stability of the common-gate stage in the cascode DA topology.

SiC MESFETs for High-Frequency Applications

AbstractSignificant progress has been made in the development of SiC metal semiconductor field-effect transistors (MESFETs) and monolithic microwave integrated-circuit (MMIC) power amplifiers for high-frequency power applications. Three-inch-diameter high-purity semi-insulating 4H-SiC substrates have been used in this development, enabling high-volume fabrication with improved performance by minimizing surface- and substrate-related trapping issues previously observed in MESFETs. These devices exhibit excellent reliability characteristics, with mean time to failure in excess of 500 h at a junction temperature of 410°C. A sampling of these devices has also been running for over 5000 h in an rf high-temperature operating-life test, with negligible changes in performance. High-power SiC MMIC amplifiers have also been demonstrated with excellent yield and repeatability. These MMIC amplifiers show power performance characteristics not previously available with conventional GaAs technology. These developments have led to the commercial availability of SiC rf power MESFETs and to the release of a foundry process for MMIC fabrication.

Simple 1 MM Receivers with a Fixed Tuned Double Sideband SIS Mixer and a Wideband INP MMIC Amplifier

We report on techniques to broaden the intermediate frequency (IF) bandwidth of the Berkeley‐Illinois‐Maryland Array (BIMA) 1mm Superconductor‐Insulator‐Superconductor (SIS) heterodyne receivers by combining fixed tuned Double Side Band (DSB) SIS mixers and wideband Monolithic Microwave Integrated Circuit (MMIC) IF amplifiers. To obtain the flattest receiver gain across the IF band we tested three schemes for keeping the mixer and amplifier as electrically close as possible. In Receiver I, we connected separate mixer and MMIC modules by a 1 ″ stainless steel SMA elbow. In Receiver II, we integrated mixer and MMIC into a modified BIMA mixer module. In Receiver III, we devised a thermally split block in which mixer and MMIC can be maintained at different temperatures–in this receiver module the mixer at 4 K sees very little of the 10–20 mW heat load of the biased MMIC at 10 K. The best average receiver noise we achieved by combining SIS mixer and MMIC amplifier is 45 ‐50 K DSB for νLO = 215–240 GHz and below 80 K DSB for νLO = 205 ‐ 270 GHz. Over an IF frequency band of 1 – 4 GHz we have demonstrated receiver DSB noise temperatures of 40 – 60 K. Of the three receiver schemes, we feel Receiver III shows the most promise for continued development.

Two-Stage Broadband High-Gain W-Band Amplifier Using 0.1-&amp;lt;tex&amp;gt;$mu$&amp;lt;/tex&amp;gt;m Metamorphic HEMT Technology

We report broadband high-gain W-band monolithic microwave integrated circuit amplifiers based on 0.1-/spl mu/m InGaAs-InAlAs-GaAs metamorphic high electron mobility transistor (MHEMT) technology. The amplifiers show excellent S/sub 21/ gains greater than 10 dB in a very broad W-band frequency range of 75-100 GHz, thereby exhibiting a S/sub 21/ gain of 10.1 dB, a S/sub 11/ of -5.1 dB and a S/sub 22/ of -5.2 dB at 100 GHz, respectively. The high gain of the amplifier is mainly attributed to the performance of the MHEMTs exhibiting a maximum transconductance of 691 mS/mm, a current gain cutoff frequency of 189 GHz, and a maximum oscillation frequency of 334 GHz.

Internally matched, ultralow DC power consumption CMOS amplifier for L-band personal communications

An internally matched, extremely low operation voltage amplifier monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC) has been implemented in a 0.35-/spl mu/m silicon-on-insulator (SOI) complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) technology for L-band personal communications. At 1.6 GHz the MMIC amplifier has a gain of 6.4 dB and a noise figure of 4.8 dB at a drain voltage of 0.6 V and a current of 2 mA. The MMIC amplifier exhibits a Gain/Power quotient as high as 5.33 dB/mW, which we believe is the highest recorded for Si CMOS MMIC technology.

K-Band Monolithic InGaP–InGaAs DCFET Amplifier Using BCB Coplanar Waveguide Technology

A K-band (20 GHz) monolithic amplifier was developed and fabricated by adopting a low-/spl kappa/ benzocyclobutene (BCB) coplanar waveguide (CPW) line and InGaP-InGaAs doped-channel HFETs (DCFETs). This monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC) utilizes a high impedance BCB CPW microstrip line (Z/sub 0/=70 /spl Omega/) for the biasing circuits, and a Z/sub 0/=50 /spl Omega/ line for the RF signal transmission. The low dielectric constant characteristic of the BCB interlayer is beneficial for a common-ground bridge process, which reduces the parasitics. The calculated loss tan/spl delta/ is 0.036 for the BCB at 20 GHz. The one-stage MMIC amplifier achieves an S/sub 21/ of 5 dB at 20 GHz, which is the first demonstration of the K-band InGaP-InGaAs DCFET monolithic circuit.

Broad-band high-power amplifier using spatial power-combining technique

High power, broad bandwidth, high linearity, and low noise are among the most important features in amplifier design. The broad-band spatial power-combining technique addresses all these issues by combining the output power of a large quantity of microwave monolithic integrated circuit (MMIC) amplifiers in a broad-band coaxial waveguide environment, while maintaining good linearity and improving phase noise of the MMIC amplifiers. A coaxial waveguide was used as the host of the combining circuits for broader bandwidth and better uniformity by equally distributing the input power to each element. A new compact coaxial combiner with much smaller size is investigated. Broad-band slotline to microstrip-line transition is integrated for better compatibility with commercial MMIC amplifiers. Thermal simulations are performed and an improved thermal management scheme over previous designs is employed to improve the heat sinking in high-power application. A high-power amplifier using the compact combiner design is built and demonstrated to have a bandwidth from 6 to 17 GHz with 44-W maximum output power. Linearity measurement has shown a high third-order intercept point of 52 dBm. Analysis shows the amplifier has the ability to extend spurious-free dynamic range by N/sup 2/3/ times. The amplifier also has shown a residual phase floor close to -140 dBc at 10-kHz offset from the carrier with 5-6-dB reductions compared to a single MMIC amplifier it integrates.

A 4-W X-band compact coplanar high-power amplifier MMIC with 18-dB gain and 25% PAE

The performance of a compact coplanar microwave monolithic integrated circuit (MMIC) amplifier with high output power in the X-band is presented. Based on our 0.3-/spl mu/m gate-length GaAs power pseudomorphic high electron mobility transistor (PHEMT) process on 4-in wafer, this two-stage amplifier, having a chip size of 16 mm/sup 2/, averages 4-W continuous-wave (CW) and 25% mean power-added efficiency (PAE) in the X-band, with more than 18-dB linear gain. Peak output powers of P/sub -1dB/=36.3dBm (4.3 W) and P/sub sat/ of 36.9 dBm (4.9 W) at 10 GHz with a PAE of 50% were also measured. Compared to previously reported X-band coplanar high-power amplifiers, this represents a chip size reduction of 20%, comparable to the size of compact state-of-the-art microstrip power amplifiers.

Spatial power amplifier using a passive and active TEM waveguide concept

A new spatial power amplifier is presented in which power is spatially combined within a TEM waveguide using a low-loss transition array of E-plane integrated finlines to microstrip lines. The TEM-mode waveguide is implemented using a periodically patterned surface called a uniplanar compact electromagnetic bandgap (UC-EBG) structure. Our designed Ku-band back-to-back transition array demonstrates a maximum return loss of 17.5 dB and a maximum insertion loss of 0.65 dB. The TEM waveguide is found to have a 1-GHz bandwidth centered at 14.5 GHz. Tuning of the center frequency may be accomplished via an active UC-EBG structure that incorporates varactor diodes. The use of the UC-EBG surface allows more power cards to be inserted within the TEM waveguide since the amplifier cells saturate uniformly. The spatial power combiner is used to combine the output powers of 12 20-mW monolithic-microwave integrated-circuit amplifier chips. The designed power module yields an output power of 23.15 dBm and a combining efficiency of 86%. A comparison between the passive and active UC-EGB surfaces is experimentally demonstrated.

A Ka-band power amplifier based on a low-profile slotted-waveguide power-combining/dividing circuit

In this paper, a Ka-band power amplifier based on a resonant slotted-waveguide-to-microstrip power-dividing/combining circuit is presented. The advantages of this structure are its low profile, ease of fabrication, as well as its potential for high power-combining efficiency. In addition, efficient heat sinking of monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC) devices is achieved. A slotted-waveguide power amplifier using eight MMIC amplifiers was designed and fabricated. The measured power-combining efficiency at 33 GHz is 72%. In addition, simulation results predicting the performance degradation of the slotted-waveguide power amplifier due to multiple device failure are presented.

A fully integrated broad-band amplifier MMIC employing a novel chip-size package

In this work, we used a novel RF chip-size package (CSP) to develop a broad-band amplifier monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC), including all the matching and biasing components, for Ku- and K-band applications. By utilizing an anisotropic conductive film for the RF-CSP, the fabrication process for the packaged amplifier MMIC could be simplified and made cost effective. STO (SrTiO/sub 3/) capacitors were employed to integrate the dc biasing components on the MMIC. A novel pre-matching technique was used for the gate input and drain output of the FETs to achieve a broad-band design for the amplifier MMIC without any loss of gain. To improve the circuit stability of the amplifier MMIC in the out-of-band, a parallel RC circuit was employed at the input of the amplifier MMIC. The packaged amplifier MMIC exhibited good RF performance and stability over a wide frequency range. This work is the first report of a fully integrated CSP amplifier MMIC successfully operating in the Ku-/K-band.