A Broadband 10-43-GHz High-Gain LNA MMIC Using Coupled-Line Feedback in 0.15-μm GaAs pHEMT Technology

• Published in: IEEE microwave and wireless components letters Vol. 32; no. 12; pp. 1459 - 1462
• Main Authors: Yan, Xu, Yu, Pengyu, Zhang, Jingyuan, Gao, Si-Ping, Guo, Yongxin
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: IEEE 01.12.2022
• Subjects: Broadband communication; Coupled-line (CL) feedback; Couplings; GaAs pseudomorphic high electron mobility transistor (pHEMT); Gain measurement; Gallium arsenide; high gain; low-noise amplifier (LNA); Noise measurement; PHEMTs; Wideband
• ISSN: 1531-1309; 1558-1764
• DOI: 10.1109/LMWC.2022.3193007

In this letter, a 10-43-GHz low-noise amplifier (LNA) monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC) is designed in a commercial 0.15-<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">\mu \text{m} </tex-math></inline-formula> GaAs E-mode pseudomorphic high electron mobility transistor (pHEMT) technology. In the proposed LNA circuit, a novel coupled-line (CL)-based positive feedback structure is employed with the bandpass characteristic. By carefully tuning its coupling factor and arm length, the center frequency <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">f_{c} </tex-math></inline-formula> and the intensity of the feedback can be controlled, respectively. Subsequently, targeting <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">f_{c} </tex-math></inline-formula> at the higher cutting edge of the working band leads to compensated gain roll-off and extended bandwidth. Incorporating three-stage common-source (CS) architectures, an LNA prototype is fabricated with a size of 1.05 mm2 including pads. Under 2-V voltage drain drain (VDD), good performance is obtained, including 24.6-dB peak gain with 3-dB bandwidth of 33 GHz, 2.4-3.0-dB noise figure (NF), 54.5 ± 13.8-ps group delay, and 12.3/21.5-dBm best output power at 1 dB gain compression (OP1dB)/output third order intercept point (OIP3). The total dc power is 110 mW.