Ultra-Low-Noise InGaAs mHEMT Technology and MMICs for Space Missions and Radio Astronomy
- Resource Type
- Conference
- Authors
- Thome, Fabian; John, Laurenz; Weber, Rainer; Heinz, Felix; Massler, Hermann; Leuther, Arnulf; Chartier, Sebastien
- Source
- 2023 IEEE/MTT-S International Microwave Symposium - IMS 2023 Microwave Symposium - IMS 2023, 2023 IEEE/MTT-S International. :1136-1139 Jun, 2023
- Subject
- Components, Circuits, Devices and Systems
Computing and Processing
Engineering Profession
Fields, Waves and Electromagnetics
Photonics and Electrooptics
Radio frequency
Space missions
mHEMTs
Cryogenics
Extraterrestrial measurements
Microwave circuits
Indium gallium arsenide
High-electron-mobility transistors (HEMTs)
low-noise amplifiers (LNAs)
metamorphic HEMTs (mHEMTs)
millimeter wave (mmW)
monolithic microwave integrated circuits (MMICs)
- Language
- ISSN
- 2576-7216
This paper demonstrates a set of wideband state-of-the-art low-noise amplifier (LNA) monolithic microwave integrated circuits (MMICs) ranging from 2 to 190 GHz. All MMICs are fabricated in a 50-nm gate-length InGaAs metamorphic high-electron-mobility transistor (mHEMT) technology. The LNAs achieve state-of-the-art noise performance for MMICs at room temperature (RT) and cryogenic conditions. The paper discusses specific design tradeoffs, such as the optimization of the input-matching network for best noise performance at RT or cryogenic condition or a lowest possible S 11 . The discussion is exemplified with the design and measurement of three different W-band (75–110 GHz) LNAs. Linearity considerations are discussed based on bias-dependent single- and two-tone circuit measurements. An RF stress test and statistics over five runs and 17 wafers of the measured noise performance of W-LNA1 MMICs complete the picture of a highly reliable InGaAs mHEMT technology with state-of-the-art RT and cryogenic noise performance.