Cryogenic indium-phosphide HEMT low-noise amplifiers at V-band

• Published in: IEEE transactions on microwave theory and techniques Vol. 48; no. 7; pp. 1283 - 1286
• Main Authors: Tanskanen, J.M., Kangaslahti, P., Ahtola, H., Jukkala, P., Karttaavi, T., Lahdes, M., Varis, J., Tuovinen, J.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York IEEE 01.07.2000; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: Amplification; Amplifiers; Automobiles; Automotive engineering; Cryogenics; Design; Frequency; Gain; HEMTs; Indium phosphide; Indium phosphides; Low-noise amplifiers; Millimeter wave transistors; MODFETs; Noise; Noise figure; Noise levels; Temperature
• ISSN: 0018-9480; 1557-9670
• DOI: 10.1109/22.853474

Indium-phosphide (InP) high electron-mobility transistors potentially have the lowest noise at frequencies below 100 GHz, especially when cryogenically cooled. We have designed monolithically integrated InP millimeter-wave low-noise amplifiers (LNAs) for the European Space Agency (ESA) science Planck mission. The Planck LNA's design goal for noise temperature is 35 K at the ambient temperature of 20 K. The operation bandwidth is over 20% at 70 GHz. The maximum allowable power consumption for a Planck LNA (gain 20 dB) is P/sub be/=5 mW at 20 K. The chosen foundry for these LNA's was DaimlerChrysler Research, Ulm, Germany. The DaimlerChrysler 0.18-/spl mu/m InP process was used. This process is well suited for V-band LNA design, giving sufficient gain with very low noise. Several one-, two-, and three-stage amplifiers were designed. The best of them exhibited a noise figure lower than 5.5 dB with a gain higher than 14 dB over the 50-68-GHz range at room temperature. The best single-stage amplifier demonstrated a noise figure of 4.5 dB and a gain higher than 5 dS from 50 to 60 GHz at room temperature. On-wafer measurements on these monolithic-microwave integrated circuits (MMIC's) have been done at MilliLab, Espoo, Finland. For the module fabrication, MMIC chips will be mounted in a WR-15 waveguide split-block housing.