Title :
Ultra-low-noise indium-phosphide MMIC amplifiers for 85-115 GHz
Author :
Archer, John W. ; Lai, Richard ; Gough, Russell
Author_Institution :
Telecommun. & Ind. Phys., CSIRO, Epping, NSW, Australia
fDate :
11/1/2001 12:00:00 AM
Abstract :
This paper describes a high-performance indium-phosphide monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC) amplifier, which has been developed for cooled application in ultra-low-noise imaging-array receivers. At 300 K, the four-stage amplifier exhibits more than 15-dB gain and better than 10-dB input and output return loss from 80 to 110 GHz. The room-temperature noise figure is typically 3.2 dB, measured between 90-98 GHz. When cooled to 15 K, the gain increases to more than 18 dB and the noise figure decreases to 0.5 dB. Only one design pass was required to obtain very good agreement between the predicted and measured characteristics of the circuit. The overall amplifier performance is comparable to the best ever reported for MMIC amplifiers in this frequency band
Keywords :
III-V semiconductors; MMIC amplifiers; indium compounds; integrated circuit noise; millimetre wave amplifiers; 0.5 dB; 10 dB; 15 K; 15 dB; 18 dB; 3.2 dB; 300 K; 85 to 115 GHz; InP; circuit design; gain; indium phosphide MMIC amplifier; noise figure; return loss; ultra-low-noise millimeter-wave imaging array receiver; Australia; Circuits; HEMTs; Indium phosphide; Low-noise amplifiers; MMICs; MODFETs; Millimeter wave communication; Millimeter wave technology; Noise figure;
Journal_Title :
Microwave Theory and Techniques, IEEE Transactions on
