A 35-170 GHz Ultrawideband Distributed Power Amplifier with >16% Peak PAE and 14 dBm Peak Output Power in InP DHBT Technology

T. Shivan¹, M. Hossain¹, T.K. Johansen², H. Yacoub¹, R. Doerner¹, W. Heinrich¹, V. Krozer¹

Published in:

Proc. 20th European Microwave Integrated Circuits Conference (EuMIC 2025), Utrecht, Netherlands, Sep. 22-23, ISBN: 978-2-87487-082-8, pp. 178-181 (2025).

Abstract:

This work presents an ultrawide distributed amplifier with state-of-the-art values on power-added-efficiency (PAE) and output power over a frequency of 90 to 155 GHz. A distributed architecture-based topology with five units of cascode cell is chosen to achieve both ultra-broadband (beyond 100% bandwidth), high output RF power and power-added-efficiency (PAE) characteristics simultaneously. A diamond heat spreader allows increased current flow and dissipated power and an accordingly higher voltage swing. This allows for a high power-gain. With a small-signal gain of 8 dB, the circuit achieves a 3-dB bandwidth of 35-170 GHz with a peak output power of >14 dBm and PAE of >16% at 145 GHz with a 500 nm InP DHBT transistor. To the author’s best knowledge, this is the highest achieved PAE in the D-band (110 to 170 GHz) for any mm-wave ultrawideband DA. This circuit demonstrate that, implementing improved heat spreader technology, high values of PAE and output RF power are possible, superseding any other state-of-the-art MMIC based ultrawideband DA.

Keywords:

Distributed amplifier (DA), InP double hetero-junction bipolar transistor (InP DHBT), monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC), transferred-substrate (TS) process.

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