A 22-30-GHz GaN Low-Noise Amplifier With 0.4-1.1-dB Noise Figure

• Published in: IEEE microwave and wireless components letters Vol. 29; no. 2; pp. 134 - 136
• Main Authors: Tong, Xiaodong, Zhang, Shiyong, Zheng, Penghui, Huang, Yang, Xu, Jianxing, Shi, Xiangyang, Wang, Rong
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: IEEE 01.02.2019
• Subjects: Gain; Gallium nitride; Gallium nitride (GaN); HEMTs; Linearity; Logic gates; low-noise amplifier (LNA); noise figure (NF); Noise measurement; output-referred 1-dB compression point (P1dB); output-referred third-order intercept point (OIP3); robust; Temperature measurement
• DOI: 10.1109/LMWC.2018.2886074
• ISSN: 1531-1309

A 22-30-GHz gallium nitride (GaN) low-noise amplifier (LNA) having a noise figure (NF) of 0.4-1.1 dB is presented in this letter. This LNA is fabricated with 0.1 gate-length GaN-on-silicon high-electron mobility transistor process, which is believed to have the lowest NF among GaN LNA at this frequency range reported to date. The small-signal gain is between 19.5 and 22.5 dB across the band. The output-referred 1-dB compression point (P1dB) and output-referred third-order intercept point (OIP3) are at 20.8- and 34.5-dBm level. The high robust was proven by stressing the LNA with a continuous wave input power of 30 dBm for 1 min. The three-stage LNA is <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">1.7\times1.3 </tex-math></inline-formula> mm 2 in area and consumes 210-mW dc power. Compared with the traditional gallium arsenide and indium phosphide LNA, the GaN monolithic microwave integrated circuit LNA in this letter exhibits a competitive NF but has much higher robust and linearity.