A 280-310 GHz InAlAs/InGaAs mHEMT Power Amplifier MMIC with 6.7-8.3 dBm Output Power

• Published in: IEEE microwave and wireless components letters Vol. 29; no. 2; pp. 143 - 145
• Main Authors: John, Laurenz, Neininger, Philipp, Friesicke, Christian, Tessmann, Axel, Leuther, Arnulf, Schlechtweg, Michael, Zwick, Thomas
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: IEEE 01.02.2019
• Subjects: Frequency measurement; Gain; Gain measurement; mHEMT; mHEMTs; power amplifier (PA); Power generation; Power measurement; submillimeter wave; Topology
• ISSN: 1531-1309; 1558-1764
• DOI: 10.1109/LMWC.2018.2885916

This letter presents a broadband power amplifier (PA) millimeter-wave integrated circuit (MMIC) demonstrating 6.7-8.3-dBm measured output power from 280 to 310 GHz at −5-dBm input power. The measured small-signal gain is 15-20 dB for 266-330 GHz, which is the maximum frequency that could be measured. A dc power of 521 mW is required for this four-stage amplifier circuit using four cascode amplifier cells in parallel. The cascode PA cell is implemented with thin-film microstrip lines on the wafer front side using two two-finger devices with 10-<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">\mu \text{m} </tex-math></inline-formula> finger width in parallel. Due to the compact cascode cell topology, the total gate width of 160 <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">\mu \text{m} </tex-math></inline-formula> is realized requiring only 400 <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">\mu \text{m}\,\,\times </tex-math></inline-formula> 800 <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">\mu \text{m} </tex-math></inline-formula> chipsize for the four-stage amplifier without pads. The reported output power represents the state of the art for mHEMT-based PA MMICs between 280 and 310 GHz.