Q-band low noise amplifiers using a 0.15μm MHEMT process for broadband communication and radio astronomy applications

Abstract

Two Q-band low noise amplifiers using a 0.15-μm InGaAs MHEMT process for broadband communication and radio astronomy applications are presented in this paper. Between 37 and 53 GHz, the LNA1 features a small signal gain of higher than 31 dB, a noise figure of better than 3.5 dB with a minimum noise figure of 2.8 dB at 44 GHz, and a gain-bandwidth product (GBP) of 679 GHz. Between 32 and 50 GHz, the LNA2 features a small signal gain of higher than 28 dB, a noise figure of better than 3.2 dB with a minimum noise figure of 2.6 dB at 44 GHz, and a GBP of 569 GHz. The chip sizes of the LNA1 and LNA2 are both 2 x 1 mm <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sup> . The LNAs demonstrate broad bandwidth, high gain, low noise figure, and compact chip size, and they will be further applied to a few broadband receivers for communications and radio astronomy applications. Moreover, this work demonstrates the highest GBP among all the reported Q-band LNAs.