Cryogenic GaAs high gain and low-noise amplifier module for radio astronomy

A small size low noise amplifier (LNA) module operating at 10GHz capable of a cryogenic cooling for radio astronomy is presented. The LNA has been fabricated using a 0.15μm gate length GaAs-based pseudomorphic high electron mobility transistor (pHEMT) monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC) technology. This MMIC amplifier is a single chip consisting of three-stages was assembled in a module with a size of 38mm × 20mm. Using cryogenic equipments, the module was cooled down to a cryogenic temperature of 113 K, where the LNA achieved a high gain of 32.6dB with a noise temperature of 71K (noise figure of 0.96 dB) at 10 GHz. The result obtained prove that the LNA presented is a suitable candidate for radio astronomy.