This paper demonstrates the monolithic
integration of a substrate-integrated waveguide bandpass
filter (BPF) and a low-noise amplifier (LNA) at F-band,
fabricated in a 70-nm GaN-on-SiC technology. The three-stage
LNA alone achieves a state-of-the-art average noise figure of
3.6 dB over 87–115 GHz. The LNA + BPF exhibits a peak
gain of 13.6 dB over a 3 dB bandwidth of 17 GHz from 104 to
121 GHz. The average noise figure is 4.9 dB over 87–115 GHz.
The OP1 dB and saturated output power are 17.6dBm and
>20 dBm, respectively.
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A D-band Frequency-Doubling Distributed Amplifier Through Monolithic Integration of SiC SIW and GaN HEMTs
This is the first report of a distributed amplifier (DA) realized through monolithic integration of transistors with a substrate-integrated waveguide (SIW). The DA uses a stepped-impedance microstrip line as the input divider like in conventional DAs, but uses a low-loss, high-power-capacity SIW as the output combiner. The input signal is distributed to four GaN high-electron mobility transistors (HEMTs) evenly in magnitude but with the phase successively delayed by 90° at the fundamental frequency. The HEMTs are separated by a half wavelength at the second harmonic frequency in the SIW, so that their outputs are combined coherently at the SIW output. To overcome the limited speed of the GaN HEMTs, they are driven nonlinearly to generate second harmonics, and their fundamental outputs are suppressed with the SIW acting as a high-pass filter. The measured characteristics of the DA agree with that simulated at the small-signal level, but exceeds that simulated at the large-signal level. For example, under an input of 68 GHz and 10 dBm, the output at 136 GHz is 24-dB above the fundamental. Under an input of 68 GHz and 20 dBm, the output at 136 GHz is 14 dBm, with a conversion loss of 6 dB and a power consumption of 882 mW. This proof-of-principle demonstration opens the path to improving the gain, power and efficiency of DAs with higher-performance transistors and drive circuits. Although the demonstration is through monolithic integration, the approach is applicable to heterogeneous integration with the SIW and transistors fabricated on separate chips.
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- PAR ID:
- 10442666
- Publisher / Repository:
- IEEE
- Date Published:
- ISBN:
- 978-1-6654-9418-2
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 1-3
- Subject(s) / Keyword(s):
- distributed amplifier frequency doubler millimeter wave MMIC power combining substrate integrated waveguide
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Location:
- Taipei, Taiwan
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Conference Paper:
- https://doi.org/10.1109/APMC57107.2023.10439777
