180–265 GHz, 17–24 dBm output power broadband, high-gain power amplifiers in InP HBT

Abstract

We report here two 250-nm InP HBT power amplifiers operating between 180-265 GHz. A 3-stage, 8-PA cell combined design demonstrates S21 gain exceeding 25-dB between 202-257 GHz and 20-dB between 194-265 GHz. Peak output power is 140-mW at 200-GHz with 14.7-dB gain and 5.1% PAE. The PA P <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">sat</sub> RF power is at least 100-mW from 190-235 GHz, 82-mW from 183-245 GHz, and 50-mW from 183-263 GHz. This represents 80-GHz large-signal bandwidth from this design. A 3-stage, 16-PA cell combined design demonstrates S21 gain exceeding 24-dB between 200-255 GHz and 20-dB between 194-262 GHz. Peak output power is 248-mW at 200-GHz with 9.0-dB gain and 4.1% PAE. The PA P <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">sat</sub> RF power is at least 200-mW from 195-215 GHz, 170-mW from 190-220 GHz, and 100-mW from 185-255 GHz. This represents 70-GHz large-signal bandwidth from this design. These InP HBT amplifier chips represent improvements to state-of-the-art in the following areas: 13% increase to the maximum PA power reported above 200-GHz, first reported 200-mW PA power with 20-GHz (195-215 GHz) operation, highest PA power reported above 240-GHz, first demonstrated 100-mW power to 255-GHz, and 70-GHz (16-cell PA) and 80-GHz (8-cell PA) bandwidth covering most of the WR04 waveguide frequency band.