GaN Technology for E, W and G-Band Applications

Abstract

Highly scaled GaN T-gate technology offers devices with high f <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">t</sub> /f <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">MAX</sub> , and low minimum noise figure while still maintaining high breakdown voltage and high linearity typical for GaN technology. In this paper we report an E-band GaN power amplifier (PA) with output power (P <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">out</sub> ) of 1.3 W at power added efficiency (PAE) of 27% and a 65-110 GHz ultra-wideband low noise amplifier (LNA). We also report the first G-band GaN amplifier capable of producing output power density of 296mW/mm at 180 GHz. All these components were realized with a 40 nm T-gate process (f <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">t</sub> = 200 GHz, f <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">MAX</sub> = 400 GHz, V <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">brk</sub> > 40V) which can enable the next generation of transmitter and receiver components that meet or exceed performance reported by competing device technologies while maintaining > 5x higher breakdown voltage, higher linearity, dynamic range and RF survivability.