Highly Linear Gallium Nitride MMIC LNAs

Abstract

In this paper, two Low Noise Amplifiers designed in Gallium Nitride HEMT MMIC technology are presented. The focus of the designs is to achieve good linearity at low power consumption and acceptable noise figure. The first design achieves an OIP3/PDC of 12 using traditional LNA design techniques. In a second design, the OIP3 is improved by 2 dB, raising OIP3/PDC to 19, among the highest figures reported for GaN LNAs. This is achieved by using both inductive source feedback and drain-gate RC feedback.