InAs/AlSb HEMT and Its Application to Ultra-Low-Power Wideband High-Gain Low-Noise Amplifiers

Abstract

Two antimonide-based compound semiconductor (ABCS) microstrip monolithic microwave integrated circuits (MMICs), i.e., single- and three-stage ultra-low-power wideband 0.3-11-GHz low-noise amplifiers (LNAs) using 0.1-mum gate-length InAs/AlSb metamorphic high electron-mobility transistors (HEMTs), have been fabricated and characterized on a GaAs substrate. The single-stage wideband LNA demonstrated a typical associated gain of 16 dB (0.3-11 GHz) with less than a 1.7-dB noise figure (2-11 GHz) at 5-mW dc power dissipation, and the three-stage wideband LNA demonstrated a typical associated gain of 30 dB (0.3-11 GHz) with less than a 2.6-dB noise figure (2-11 GHz) at 7.5-mW dc power dissipation. We believe these wideband LNA 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