A 180mW InP HBT Power Amplifier MMIC at 214 GHz

Abstract

A solid state power amplifier MMIC is demonstrated with 180mW of saturated output power at 214GHz, from an unthinned die, and a small signal S21 gain of 22.0dB. 3-dB bandwidth extends from below 210GHz to 230GHz. PDC is 12.9W. PA Cell design uses a 250nm InP HBT process and a novel three-port tuning network. Three levels of on-wafer power combining in 5μm BCB microstrip are used to combine 16 PA cells in a power amplifier MMIC. The result is a 4x increase in output periphery versus the previous state-of-the-art for InP HBT power amplifier MMICs designed for 220GHz.