• JSTS:Journal of Semiconductor Technology and Science
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.125-131
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• 2002

This paper presents MMIC drive and power amplifiers covering 6-18 ㎓. For simple wideband impedance matching and less sensitivity to fabrication variation, modified distributed topologies are employed in the both amplifiers. Cascade amplifiers with a self-biasing circuit through feedback resistors are used as unit gain blocks in the drive amplifier, resulting in high gain, high stability, and compact chip size. Self impedance matching and high-pass, low-pass impedance matching networks are used in the power amplifier. In measured results, the drive amplifier showed good return losses ($S_11,{\;}S_{22}{\;}<{\;}-10.5{\;}dB$), gain flatness ($S_{21}={\;}16{\;}{\pm}0.6{\;}dB$), and $P_{1dB}{\;}>{\;}22{\;}dBm$ over 6-18 GHz. The power amplifier showed $P_{1dB}{\;}>{\;}28.8{\;}dBm$ and $P_{sat}{\;}{\approx}{\;}30.0{\;}dBm$ with good small signal characteristics ($S_{11}<-10{\;}dB,{\;}S_{22}{\;}<{\;}-6{\;}dB,{\;}and{\;}S_{21}={\;}18.5{\;}{\pm}{\;}1.25{\;}dB$) over 6-18 GHz.

• The Journal of Korean Institute of Electromagnetic Engineering and Science
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.286-297
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• 2017

This paper is a study of 6~18 GHz wideband high power amplifier which is composed of 10 single amplifier and coaxial type spatial power combiner. The property of this spatial power combiner is on a similar principle to antipodal antenna radiation mechanism. Therefore, the key structure of proposed spatial power combiner is the antipodal finline PCB board and the finline curve shape is numerically synthesized by using Klopfensein's optimum impedance taper. The measured CW output power of spatial combined high power amplifier is nearly 50 W. In conclusion we prove the good combining performance between the spatial power combiner and 10 single amplifier over 6~18 GHz frequency ranges. Also, we developed the key component PA and MFC MMIC which controls the phase and gain of the each amplifier, The main characteristic of MFC MMIC is to maximize combining efficiency of power amplifier.

• ETRI Journal
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• v.39 no.5
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• pp.737-745
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• 2017

A 6-GHz-to-18-GHz monolithic nonuniform distributed power amplifier has been designed using the load modulation of increased series gate capacitance. This amplifier was implemented using a $0.25-{\mu}m$ AlGaN/GaN HEMT process on a SiC substrate. With the proposed load modulation, we enhanced the amplifier's simulated performance by 4.8 dB in output power, and by 13.1% in power-added efficiency (PAE) at the upper limit of the bandwidth, compared with an amplifier with uniform gate coupling capacitors. Under the pulse-mode condition of a $100-{\mu}s$ pulse period and a 10% duty cycle, the fabricated power amplifier showed a saturated output power of 39.5 dBm (9 W) to 40.4 dBm (11 W) with an associated PAE of 17% to 22%, and input/output return losses of more than 10 dB within 6 GHz to 18 GHz.

• Journal of Navigation and Port Research
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.217-221
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• 2003

In this work, we used a novel RF-CSP to develop a broadband amplifier MMIC, including all the matching and biasing components, for Ku and K band applications. By utilizing an ACF for the RF-CSP, the fabrication process for the packaged amplifier MMIC could be simplified and made cost effective. STO (SrTiO$_3$) capacitors were employed to integrate the DC biasing components on the MMIC. A pre-matching technique was used for the gate input and drain output of the FETs to achieve a broadband design for the amplifier MMIC. The amplifier CSP MMIC exhibited good RF performance (Gain of 12.5$\pm$1.5 dB, return loss less than -6 dB, PldB of 18.5$\pm$1.5 dBm) over a wide frequency range. This work is the first report of a fully integrated CSP amplifier MMIC successfully operating in the Ku/K band.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.11 no.10
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• pp.3917-3922
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• 2010

In this paper, 3 stage amplifier MMIC was designed and fabricated with U-band optimized epitaxal pHEMT that produced by large signal characterization and modeling for 60 GHz band. The pHEMT used in this paper, the gate $0.12\;{\mu}m$ length and total gate width of $100\;{\mu}m$, $200\;{\mu}m$ has been modeled using the large signal designed with negative feedback and MCLF instead of MIM capacitor for improving stability. Fabricated MMIC $2.5{\times}1.5mm^2$ size, current about 40 mA, operating frequency 59.5~60.5 GHz, gain 19.9~18.6 dB, input matching characteristics -14.6~-14.7 dB, output matching characteristics -11.9~-16.3 dB and output -5 dBm characteristics were obtained.

• Proceedings of the Korea Electromagnetic Engineering Society Conference
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• 2000.11a
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• pp.150-153
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• 2000

In this paper, we have designed a 2 stage MMIC power amplifier which has flat gains of in-band and reasonable out-band cutoff characteristics using 0.5$\mu\textrm{m}$ MESFET libra교 of ETRI. For the 1st stave, we obtaind P$_{1dB}$ of 9.2 dBm and gain 10.8 dB using 6 finger D-MESFET and P$_{1dB}$ of 18.4 dBm and gain of 10.8 dB using 14 finger D-MESFET for the 2nd stage, which is power matched using LIBRA's embedded TUNER. Also in-band gain flatness and out-band cutoff characteristics are obtained by attaching LC tank in the output matching circuit. The designed 2 stage MMIC power amplifier has bandwidth of 0.95～2.8 GHz, gain of 20 dB and P$_{1dB}$of 17.2 dBm. Especially gain flatness of $\pm$0.8dB was obtained in 1.8～2.5 GHz frequency ranges. And chip size is 1.4$\times$1.4 mm..4 mm.

• ETRI Journal
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• v.42 no.5
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• pp.781-789
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• 2020

In this study, an E-band low-noise amplifier (LNA) monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC) has been designed using silicon-germanium 130-nm bipolar complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor technology to suppress unwanted signal gain outside operating frequencies and improve the signal gain and noise figures at operating frequencies. The proposed impedance-controllable filter has series (R_s) and parallel (R_p) resistors instead of a conventional inductor-capacitor (L-C) filter without any resistor in an interstage matching circuit. Using the impedance-controllable filter instead of the conventional L-C filter, the unwanted high signal gains of the designed E-band LNA at frequencies of 54 GHz to 57 GHz are suppressed by 8 dB to 12 dB from 24 dB to 26 dB to 12 dB to 18 dB. The small-signal gain S₂₁ at the operating frequencies of 70 GHz to 95 GHz are only decreased by 1.4 dB to 2.4 dB from 21.6 dB to 25.4 dB to 19.2 dB to 24.0 dB. The fabricated E-band LNA MMIC with the proposed filter has a measured S₂₁ of 16 dB to 21 dB, input matching (S₁₁) of -14 dB to -5 dB, and output matching (S₂₂) of -19 dB to -4 dB at E-band operating frequencies of 70 GHz to 95 GHz.

• Journal of electromagnetic engineering and science
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.44-51
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• 2016

A commercial $0.25{\mu}m$ GaN process is used to implement 6-18 GHz wideband power amplifier (PA) monolithic microwave integrated circuits (MMICs). GaN HEMTs are advantageous for enhancing RF power due to high breakdown voltages. However, the large-signal models provided by the foundry service cannot guarantee model accuracy up to frequencies close to their maximum oscillation frequency ($F_{max}$). Generally, the optimum output load point of a PA varies severely according to frequency, which creates difficulties in generating watt-level output power through the octave bandwidth. This study overcomes these issues by the development of in-house large-signal models that include a thermal model and by applying distributed L-C output load matching to reactive matched amplifiers. The proposed GaN PAs have successfully accomplished output power over 5 W through the octave bandwidth.

• Journal of electromagnetic engineering and science
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.18-23
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• 2006

In this paper, we demonstrate a fully integrated X-band image rejection down converter, which was developed using InGaP/GaAs HBT MMIC technology, consists of two single-balanced mixers, a differential buffer amplifier, a differential YCO, an LO quadratue generator, a three-stage polyphase filter, and a differential intermediate frequency(IF) amplifier. The X-band image rejection downconverter yields an image rejection ratio of over 25 dB, a conversion gain of over 2.5 dB, and an output-referred 1-dB compression power$(P_{1dB,OUT})$ of - 10 dBm. This downconverter achieves broadband image rejection characteristics over a frequency range of 1.1 GHz with a current consumption of 60 mA from a 3-V supply.

• The Journal of the Institute of Internet, Broadcasting and Communication
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• v.18 no.6
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• pp.195-200
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• 2018

A W-band frequency octupler is implemented on 100-nm GaAs pHEMT process. The fabricated octupler can be used as a local oscillator or a signal source of W-band transceivers. Three common-source doublers are connected in cascade to multiply an input signal of 10.75 GHz to 83 GHz. A common-source amplifier is followed for each doubler to improve the conversion gain and suppress the unwanted harmonics. The fabricated octupler showes high output of more than 6 dBm in the 80 - 84 GHz band and achieved excellent spurious suppression performance over 20 dBc.