A 67–116-GHz Cryogenic Low-Noise Amplifier in a 50-nm InGaAs Metamorphic HEMT Technology
Fabian Thome, F. Schäfer, Sener Turk, P. Yagoubov, Arnulf Leuther
Abstract
This letter presents a 67–116-GHz low-noise amplifier (LNA) module with state-of-the-art cryogenic noise performance. The LNA is based on a monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC) that is fabricated in a 50-nm metamorphic high-electron-mobility transistor (mHEMT) technology. The MMIC is packaged in a WR10 waveguide split-block housing and uses fused silica <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${E}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> -plane microstrip-to-waveguide transitions. For a 67–116-GHz bandwidth, the amplifier exhibits average noise temperatures ( <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${T}~_{{\text {e}}}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> ) at 15 and 300 K of 21.4 and 194 K, respectively. A minimum <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${T}~_{{\text {e}}}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> of 13.6 K is achieved at 72.2 GHz. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this LNA demonstrates a new low-noise benchmark for room temperature and cryogenic noise temperatures in the extended <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">${W}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> -band frequency range.