A 75 mW 210 GHz Power Amplifier Module

Abstract

In this paper, a 210 GHz solid-state power amplifier (SSPA) module is presented. The amplifier MMIC uses sub-50 nm InP HEMT transistors, coplanar waveguide (CPW) technology, and on-chip electromagnetic transitions to waveguide. Two levels of power combining were used on-chip to achieve total transistor output periphery of 0.96 mm. The first level is a 1:4 CPW Dolph-Chebychev transformer. The second level is a two-way, novel dual transition to the waveguide. In this method, two amplifiers were placed on the MMIC die, each with independent transition to the waveguide, where their output power is combined. This method reduced the combining loss compared to traditional coupler methods. The SSPA module demonstrated saturated output power ¡Y 60 mW from 205 to 225 GHz and peak output power of 75 mW at 210 GHz, representing a significant increase in SSPA output power at these frequencies compared to the prior state-of-the-art.