Direct-Coupled GaAs Monolithic IC Amplifiers

A review of the present status of MMIC's is given with special reference to the specific advantages and problems of monolithic microwave circuits as opposed to hybrid circuits. Some applications will also be discussed together with perspectives of future progress in the field, GaAs integrated circuits are nearly 10 years old. The first circuits were, rather surprisingly, logic circuits. Surprisingly since the GaAs field effect transistor had already shown success with microwave analogue hybridcircuits to the extentof pushing all other devices either towards higher frequencies (for Gunn and Avalanche diodes) or higher powers (for tubes) where the FET's are no longer operational. Microwave integrated circuits soon made their appearance however when Ray Pengelly presented his first amplifier in 1976. The problem that was immediately apparent was that the surface required for microwave circuits was comparatively big for an integrated circuit although much smaller than a hybrid circuit. The real advantages of the monolithic concept, control of parasitic reactances, reproducability, reliability, were offset by the cost of the basic GaAs material since the passive elements occupied a very large proportion of the surface (> 90 %) and as a dielectric substrate GaAs is greater than 50 times more expensive than Al2 03.

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A monolithic wide-band GaAs IC amplifier

Estreich¹

1982

IEEE J. Solid-State Circuits

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Direct-Coupled GaAs Monolithic IC Amplifiers

Cited by 10 publications

References 4 publications

A 3.2 GHz 26 dB wide-band monolithic matched GaAs MESFET feedback amplifier using cascodes

A 3.2 GHz 26 dB wide-band monolithic matched GaAs MESFET feedback amplifier using cascodes

Microwave Integrated Circuits on GaAs

A monolithic wide-band GaAs IC amplifier

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