MMIC technologies for MW and MMW applications

This paper covers two recent progresses on MW and MMW MMIC technologies. One is the high efficiency and high power density pHEMT technology for power amplifier MMICs. The nonlinear drain resistance is found to be the cause of large power loss at millimeter-wave, although it acts like the conventional resistor at low frequency. A new device structure is proposed to overcome this problem, and results in excellent performance of 0.65 W/mm output power and 35% PAE at Ka band. The other topic is the InGaP HBT oscillator enhancing the output power without any reduction of the phase noise. At 40 GHz, 6 dBm output power and -113 dBc/Hz phase noise has been demonstrated. The 2nd harmonic matching is the key to achieve high output power and low phase noise simultaneously. Results are supported by both simulations and measurements.