W O Ka-band power amplifier MMICs, 4W and 6W, with high power density and gain are presented. Each amplifier was designed using a 5-stage topology to demonstrate over 30dB of gain. The 4W design exhibited a peak saturated output power of 37.2dBm and a chip output power density of 532mWmm'. This is the highest recorded power density for a Ka-band power amplifier design to date.The high gain and power density of these designs make them ideal for low-cost Ka-band transmit systems.

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A set of 16 K-band MMIC chips has been developed for the satellites in the IRIDIUM@ communications program1. Both high power and low noise 0.25 pm PHEMT technologies were used to develop this MMIC chip set. The MMICs consist of a broad band frequency doubler, up and down converters, high power amplifiers, variable gain amplifiers, low noise amplifiers, and an IF amplifier. A noise figure of less than 3.3 dB at 29 GHz and output power of over 4 watts at 23.3 GHz were achieved with no RF tuning. This paper describes statistical device characterization, design details, measured results, and integration of these MMIC chips into a high density multi-chip module (MCM).