A 4–420-GHz Distributed Amplifier MMIC in a 20-nm InGaAs-on-Si HEMT Technology With 11 ± 2 dB Gain

Abstract

This letter presents a distributed amplifier (DA) monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC) achieving a bandwidth (BW) of 4–420 GHz with a small-signal gain of 11 ± 2 dB. This sets a new BW record for ultrawideband amplifier MMICs. DA MMIC utilizes the Fraunhofer IAF 20-nm gatelength InGaAs-on-Si high-electron-mobility transistor (HEMT) technology and features ten gain cells. Each cell contains an RF cascode using two-finger transistors with a total gate width (TGW) of 16 μm. The measured noise figure (NF) is in the range of 3.2–7.7 dB (<202 GHz) and 2.8–6.7 dB when biased for lownoise (LN) conditions. Especially, the high-frequency NF shows a remarkable performance, e.g., achieving an average NF of 4.7 and 5 dB (163–202 GHz) for LN and standard bias, respectively.