Four-watt, Kt-band MMIC amplifier

Author

Yarborough, R. ; Heston, D. ; Saunier, P. ; Hua Quen Tserng ; Salzman, K. ; Smith, B.

Author_Institution

Corp. Res. & Dev., Texas Instrum. Inc., Dallas, TX, USA

fYear

1994

fDate

23-27 May 1994

Firstpage

797

Abstract

The 4-watt, 28-percent-efficient, 20-GHz power amplifier results reported at last year´s symposium have been significantly improved to 4 watts and 38-percent efficiency by using 0.25-/spl mu/m pHEMT device technology. The 1992 paper reported amplifier results for our 0.25-/spl mu/m HFET technology. In 1993, the amplifier was minimally redesigned to accommodate our latest pHEMT device improvements. The results, reported here are for a packaged Kt-band amplifier, include connector losses (no de-embedding), and are the best power and efficiency numbers reported to date for this frequency. The gain and bandwidth of this two-stage amplifier have also increased with the improved device technology, by 4.5- to 13.5-dB power gain across the 17.5- to 21-GHz band. The Kt-band amplifier features a mostly monolithic approach, with a portion of the input- and output-matching networks on alumina. AM/PM measurements for this amplifier demonstrate capability for transmitting QPSK information. This paper presents discrete 0.25-/spl mu/m pHEMT device results at 18 and 20 GHz, as well as amplifier design and performance over a >3-GHz band.<>

Keywords

MMIC; field effect integrated circuits; microwave amplifiers; power amplifiers; 0.25 micron; 13.5 dB; 17.5 to 21 GHz; 3 GHz; 38 percent; 4 W; AM/PM measurements; Al/sub 2/O/sub 3/; Kt-band; MMIC amplifier; QPSK information; alumina; connector losses; input-matching networks; monolithic approach; output-matching networks; pHEMT device technology; power amplifier; Bandwidth; Connectors; Frequency; HEMTs; MMICs; MODFETs; PHEMTs; Packaging; Paper technology; Power amplifiers;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Microwave Symposium Digest, 1994., IEEE MTT-S International

Conference_Location

San Diego, CA, USA

ISSN

0149-645X

Print_ISBN

0-7803-1778-5

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/MWSYM.1994.335236

Filename

335236