A wide-bandwidth W-band LNA in InP/Si BiCMOS technology

This paper presents the development of high-gain, wide-bandwidth, W-band LNA integrated circuits utilizing a novel 0.25 μm InP/Si BiCMOS process with Ft/Fmax of 330/270 GHz. A 4-stage microstrip LNA achieves a minimum NF of 5.7 dB at 92 GHz and remains less than 7.2 dB (6.4 dB avg.) across a 75-100 GHz bandwidth. The LNA also exhibits a peak gain of 27.7 dB, a 3-dB bandwidth of 18 GHz (80-98 GHz), gain > 20 dB over 75-110 GHz, while consuming only 19.2 mW of DC power from a 1.2V supply. Additionally, individual bias control for each device has been incorporated to vary gain, including a version with two 3-bit current steering DACs to control base currents. The 0.42 mm² (w/o pads) LNA is suitable for many emerging W-band applications including radar, communications, and imaging and provides superior performance compared to published LNAs developed in available SiGe BiCMOS technologies.