Low noise amplifiers for 140 GHz wide-band cryogenic receivers

Author

Larkoski, Patricia V. ; Kangaslahti, Pekka ; Samoska, Lorene ; Lai, Richard ; Sarkozy, Stephen ; Church, Sarah E.

Author_Institution

Stanford Univ., Stanford, CA, USA

fYear

2013

fDate

2-7 June 2013

Firstpage

1

Lastpage

4

Abstract

We report S-parameter and noise measurements for three different InP 35 nm gate-length High Electron Mobility Transistor (HEMT) Low Noise Amplifier (LNA) designs operating in the frequency range centered on 140 GHz. When packaged in a WR-6.1 waveguide housing, the LNAs have an average measured noise figure of 3.0 dB-3.6 dB over the 122-170 GHz band. One LNA was cooled to 20 K and a record low noise temperature of 46 K, or 0.64 dB noise figure, was measured at 152 GHz. These amplifiers can be used to develop receivers for instruments that operate in the 130-170 GHz atmospheric window, which is an important frequency band for ground-based astronomy and millimeter-wave imaging applications.

Keywords

III-V semiconductors; MMIC amplifiers; S-parameters; astronomy; high electron mobility transistors; indium compounds; integrated circuit design; low noise amplifiers; millimetre wave imaging; noise measurement; radio receivers; HEMT; InP; S parameter measurements; atmospheric window; bandwidth 122 GHz to 170 GHz; frequency 140 GHz; frequency 152 GHz; frequency band; ground based astronomy; high electron mobility transistor; low noise amplifiers; millimeter wave imaging applications; noise figure 0.64 dB; noise figure 3 dB to 3.6 dB; noise measurements; size 35 nm; temperature 20 K; waveguide housing; wideband cryogenic receivers; Cryogenics; Frequency measurement; HEMTs; Noise; Noise measurement; Scattering parameters; Astronomy; Cryogenic electronics; HEMTs; Low-noise amplifiers; MMICs; Noise measurement;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Microwave Symposium Digest (IMS), 2013 IEEE MTT-S International

Conference_Location

Seattle, WA

ISSN

0149-645X

Print_ISBN

978-1-4673-6177-4

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/MWSYM.2013.6697674

Filename

6697674