A Ka/Q-band 2 Watt MMIC power amplifier using dual recess 0.15 μm PHEMT process

A compact, high power amplifier MMIC operating at Ka/Q-band was designed and developed using TriQuint´s 3MI dual-recess 0.15 μm gate length GaAs PHEMT technology. This single-ended three-stage power amplifier, with chip size of 7.44 mm² (3.145 mm × 2.367 mm), on 100 μm GaAs substrate achieved 33 dBm (2 Watt) P_1dB CW output power and up to 2.5 Watts saturated output power with small signal gain of 21 dB over 33-36 GHz. The RF response of this amplifier can be further extended to cover frequencies of 32 - 38 GHz. For 37 - 38 GHz, this power amplifier demonstrated 32 dBm (1.6 Watt) saturated output power and 31 dBm P_1dB with 18 dB small signal gain. This state-of-the-art power amplifier MMIC is a smallest chip size and highest output power density from a single MMIC reported to date at Ka/Q-band.