A Wideband Highly Linear Distributed Amplifier Using Intermodulation Cancellation Technique for Stacked-HBT Cell

IET Microwaves Antenna & Prop

Tran

Pham

2021

Self Cite

The authors present a novel wideband two-dimensional voltage-controlled attenuator (VCA). The proposed design employs both stacked-FET configuration and distributed structure to achieve wideband performance, high power, and high dynamic range simultaneously. A systematic design methodology is also illustrated along with a fabricated prototype to verify the concept. The chip fabricated in a 0.15-μm Gallium Arsenide (GaAs) process exhibiting a measured power at 1-dB compression (P 1dB) of 25.5 dBm with a corresponding dynamic range of 32 dB. The insertion loss ranges from 2 to 5 dB over the bandwidth from 2 to 40 GHz. Furthermore, the chip is not only very compact (0.84 mm 2), but it also requires only a single positive supply voltage, which makes it more appealing to highly integrated wireless applications. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

L = \frac{4}{3} C_{0} Z_{0}^{2}

…”

Section: Circuit Designmentioning

confidence: 99%

A wideband high dynamic range triple‐stacked FET dual‐shunt distributed analogue voltage controlled attenuator

IET Microwaves Antenna & Prop

Tran

Pham

2021

Self Cite

“…InP has been proven to be a good technology at frequencies beyond 100 GHz with typical process parameters reported in [3] and [6] that offers high cutoff frequency fT, high breakdown voltage, low loss substrate, and reasonable efficiency [12], [13], [14], [15], [16], [17], [18], [19], [20], [21], [22], [23], [24]. A 175-GHz InP distributed amplifier (DA) is presented in [23] that achieves 10-dBm output power and 12 dB of gain.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In [24], an 11.5-dBm output power with 13 dB of gain DA covering more than 110-GHz bandwidth is presented. Several design techniques have also been introduced to improve the output power, gain, and bandwidth of InP DAs [10], [11], [12], [13], [14], [15], [16], [17], [18], [19], [20]. Specifically, stack configurations of up to three heterojunction bipolar transistor (HBT) devices have been deployed for InP amplifiers to increase the power up to 100 mW [12], [13], [14], [15], [16], [17], [18], [19].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Several design techniques have also been introduced to improve the output power, gain, and bandwidth of InP DAs [10], [11], [12], [13], [14], [15], [16], [17], [18], [19], [20]. Specifically, stack configurations of up to three heterojunction bipolar transistor (HBT) devices have been deployed for InP amplifiers to increase the power up to 100 mW [12], [13], [14], [15], [16], [17], [18], [19]. Although great efforts have been made to extend the operating bandwidth and power, previously published works have not demonstrated an output power up to 250 mW while maintaining a bandwidth above 100 GHz.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

A 7–115-GHz Distributed Amplifier With 24-dBm Output Power Using Quadruple-Stacked HBT in InP

Cui

IEEE Microw. Wireless Tech. Lett.

et al. 2023

In this letter, we present the designs and development of a wideband, high output power quadruple-stacked heterojunction bipolar transistor (HBT) distributed amplifier (DA). In particular, the stacked HBT configuration can improve gain and output power while achieving a very wide bandwidth. To validate the proposed design concept, a quadruple-stacked HBT DA is designed in an indium phosphide (InP) process. The measurement results show an average gain of 16 dB from 7-115-GHz bandwidth with a maximum of 24-dBm saturated output power ( P sat ). To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first time quadruple-stacked HBT is used in a DA to achieve the highest output power compared with other published work in the same frequency range.

“…For mmWave PA cells, transistor stacking allows a simultaneous higher power and higher gain and more importantly, a larger bandwidth due to higher output impedance [7], [8], [9], [10], [11], [12], [13], [14], [15], [16]. Most of the prior works utilize a CE transistor as the input device with an output transistor connected in series to form a stacked common emitter (SCE) PA cell.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Stacked Common-Base vs Common-Emitter mmWave PA Cells and 68–105 GHz Broadband Asymmetrical PA in 250nm InP HBT

2023

In this paper, we perform a comparative analysis between stacked common-emitter (SCE) and stacked common-base topologies (SCB) for high efficiency and broadband millimeter-Wave (mmWave) power amplifiers (PAs) in 250 nm InP-based heterojunction bipolar transistor (HBT) technology. We propose an analytical approach to design stacked PA cells accounting for complex load impedance and intramatching between stacked transistors to allow optimal loadpull operation of both the devices in the stack. We demonstrate how SCB cell can allow higher gain, mitigated power and efficiency trade-off and linearity, when compared to more well-established SCE cells at higher mmWave frequencies. The designed SCB and SCE cells achieve a measured gain of 11.8 dB/6dB gain, 33%/34% peak PAE, 16.8%/14.5% PAE at 6-dB back-off, and P sat of 18.7 dBm/19.6 dBm at 90 GHz. The SCB PA demonstrates superior linearity, and achieves an EVM of 2.38% at 11.8-dBm average power supporting 3 Gbps 64-QAM. The SCB PA achieves 17.9-18.9-dBm P sat across 80-110 GHz and is one of the highest efficiency, broadband and linear PAs in W-band using InP technology. Utilizing the PA cells, we demonstrate an asymmetrical broadband power combining circuit for high efficiency combining across a large relatively bandwidth. The PA operates across a 68-105 GHz P sat,3dB bandwidth with 21.5 dBm peak saturation power and 24% peak PAE. Asymmetrical combiner, broadband, common-base, InP HBT, millimeter-Wave (mmWave), power amplifiers (PAs), stacked PA. INDEX TERMS