Ultra-Low-Power Wideband High Gain InAs/AlSb HEMT Low-Noise Amplifiers

Abstract

Two antimonide-based compound semiconductor (ABCS) microstrip MMICs, single-stage and three-stage ultra-low-power wideband 0.01-11 GHz low-noise amplifiers using 0.1-mum gate length InAs/AlSb metamorphic HEMTs, have been fabricated and characterized on a GaAs substrate. From 0.3-11 GHz, the single-stage wideband LNA demonstrated a typical associated gain of 16 dB with less than 1.7 dB noise figure (2-11 GHz) at 5mW DC power dissipation, and the three-stage wideband LNA demonstrated a typical associated gain of 30 dB with less than 2.6 dB noise figure (2-11 GHz) at 7.5mW DC power dissipation. We believe these low noise amplifier MMICs demonstrate the lowest DC power consumption with the highest gain-bandwidth product of any MMIC to date. These results demonstrate the outstanding potential of ABCS HEMT technology for ultra-low-power wideband applications