A 560 mW, 21% power-added efficiency V-band MMIC power amplifier

Abstract

In this paper we report the development of two V-band MMIC power amplifiers, based on 0.1 mm pseudomorphic HEMT (PHEMT) technology, that significantly advance the state of the art of V-band power MMIC performance. The first, a single-ended design, measures on-wafer 293 mW output power with a record 26% PAE and 9.9 dB power gain at 62.5 GHz. The second MMIC is a balanced design with on-chip input and output Lange Couplers. It delivers a record 564 mW output power (27.5 dBm) with 21% PAE and 9.8 dB power gain. This represents more than a 50% increase in output power, together with record PAE and power gain. The MMICs have been designed for high reliability satellite communications, with full passivation, excellent thermal properties, backed-off drain bias, and have been fabricated on 3-inch wafers. These excellent first pass MMIC results can be attributed to the use of an optimized 0.1 mm PHEMT cell structure, a design based on on-wafer RF measurements and a new and very accurate large signal analytical PHEMT model.