A 220 GHz InP HBT Solid-State Power Amplifier MMIC with 90mW POUT at 8.2dB Compressed Gain

Abstract

A 220 GHz Solid State Power Amplifer MMIC is presented simultaneously demonstrating 90mW output power P <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">out</sub> and 8.2dB compressed gain. This 2-Stage, 8-Cell amplifier has 14.8 dB S21 gain at 220GHz, with small signal bandwidth from at least 190 to 240GHz. P <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">DC</sub> is 4.46W. Amplifier cells were fabricated from a 250nm InP HBT technology, jointly with a substrate- shielded, thin-film microstrip wiring environment using BCB. The 90mW P <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">out</sub> is achieved by combining eight amplifier cascode cells. The use of two gain stages relaxes the RF source power demands, where only 13.6mW P <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">in</sub> is needed to achieve 90mW P <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">out</sub> . Over 10GHz bandwidth, at least 75mW P <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">out</sub> is observed from 210 to 220GHz.