Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Kobayashi, Kevin W.
• Partyka, Paul
• Howle, Tim
• Sellas, Tony
• Hayden, Leonard

Titel

A Ka-Band InP HBT MMIC Power Amplifier With 19.8:1 IP3/P } LFOM at 48 GHz

Ist Teil von

• IEEE journal of solid-state circuits, 2023-06, p.1-10

Ort / Verlag

IEEE

Erscheinungsjahr

2023

Link zum Volltext

• IEEE_Xplore

Quelle

IEEE Electronic Library (IEL)

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• This article describes the design and measured performance of a linear efficient Ka -band InP DHBT PA with an IP3/P<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">_{\mathrm{dc}}</tex-math> </inline-formula> linearity figure of merit (LFOM) of 19.8:1 at 48 GHz and 14.1:1 at 40 GHz. The MMIC PA is based on an InP DHBT technology with peak f <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">_{\textit{T}}</tex-math> </inline-formula> and f <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">_{\rm max}</tex-math> </inline-formula> of <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">></tex-math> </inline-formula>300 and <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">></tex-math> </inline-formula>600 GHz, respectively, and achieves among the best LFOM at the Ka -band above 40 GHz from an MMIC-matched amplifier. The amplifier is a single-stage four-way combined design that was optimized for a combination of power and PAE at <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX"><</tex-math> </inline-formula>2-dB compression. The linear P <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">_{\rm 1\,dB}</tex-math> </inline-formula> is 21.2 dBm with a PAE of 28.3% and a corresponding IP3 of 36.1 dBm. A remarkable IP3- P <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">_{\mathrm{1\,dB}}</tex-math> </inline-formula> <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">=</tex-math> </inline-formula> 14.9 dB is obtained which is significantly higher than the 10 dB rule of thumb for semiconductors. At 48 GHz, a peak IP3 of 36.6 dBm and LFOM of 19.8:1 is achieved which is twice better than the low microwave frequency rule-of-thumb of 10:1 for LFOM. Under a 200-MHz QPSK modulation, linear PAEs of 17.4%-19.5% for 5% EVM across a 40-44-GHz band were achieved. This work demonstrates among the highest IP3/P<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">_{\mathrm{dc}}</tex-math> </inline-formula> LFOM and EVM linear PAE reported for an MMIC above 40 GHz.