W‐Band MMIC chipset in 0.1‐μm mHEMT technology

• Published in: ETRI journal Vol. 42; no. 4; pp. 549 - 561
• Main Authors: Lee, Jong‐Min, Chang, Woo‐Jin, Kang, Dong Min, Min, Byoung‐Gue, Yoon, Hyung Sup, Chang, Sung‐Jae, Jung, Hyun‐Wook, Kim, Wansik, Jung, Jooyong, Kim, Jongpil, Seo, Mihui, Kim, Sosu
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI) 01.08.2020; 한국전자통신연구원
• Subjects: frequency multiplier; image‐rejection mixer; LNA; mHEMT; MMIC; 전자/정보통신공학
• ISSN: 1225-6463; 2233-7326
• DOI: 10.4218/etrij.2020-0120

We developed a 0.1‐μm metamorphic high electron mobility transistor and fabricated a W‐band monolithic microwave integrated circuit chipset with our in‐house technology to verify the performance and usability of the developed technology. The DC characteristics were a drain current density of 747 mA/mm and a maximum transconductance of 1.354 S/mm; the RF characteristics were a cutoff frequency of 210 GHz and a maximum oscillation frequency of 252 GHz. A frequency multiplier was developed to increase the frequency of the input signal. The fabricated multiplier showed high output values (more than 0 dBm) in the 94 GHz–108 GHz band and achieved excellent spurious suppression. A low‐noise amplifier (LNA) with a four‐stage single‐ended architecture using a common‐source stage was also developed. This LNA achieved a gain of 20 dB in a band between 83 GHz and 110 GHz and a noise figure lower than 3.8 dB with a frequency of 94 GHz. A W‐band image‐rejection mixer (IRM) with an external off‐chip coupler was also designed. The IRM provided a conversion gain of 13 dB–17 dB for RF frequencies of 80 GHz–110 GHz and image‐rejection ratios of 17 dB–19 dB for RF frequencies of 93 GHz–100 GHz.