Title :
A cryogenically-cooled wide-band HEMT MMIC low-noise amplifier
Author :
Yang, Cheng Chih ; Nelson, Brad ; Jones, William ; Allen, Barry
Author_Institution :
TRW Inc., Redondo Beach, CA, USA
Abstract :
A balanced single-stage wideband HEMT MMIC low-noise amplifier (LNA) was designed, fabricated, cooled to a temperature of 19 K, and evaluated from 8-18 GHz. The MMIC LNA performed without damage at all test temperatures. The amplifier gain flatness over the 8-18-GHz frequency band was maintained at both room and cryogenic temperature, indicating that the broadband design topology is relatively insensitive to operation temperature. Gain increased an average of 2 dB, while the noise temperature exhibited as much as an eightfold reduction from 160 K to 20 K at 19 K operation temperature. This is the first result on performance of a cryogenically cooled HEMT MMIC LNA.<>
Keywords :
MMIC; cryogenics; field effect integrated circuits; high electron mobility transistors; microwave amplifiers; wideband amplifiers; 19 K; 8 to 18 GHz; HEMT; LNA; MMIC; SHF; balanced single-stage; broadband design topology; cryogenically-cooled; low-noise amplifier; Broadband amplifiers; Cryogenics; Frequency; HEMTs; Low-noise amplifiers; MMICs; Operational amplifiers; Performance evaluation; Temperature; Testing;
Journal_Title :
Microwave and Guided Wave Letters, IEEE
