A DC-170 GHz InP Distributed Amplifier Using Transmission Line Loss Compensation Technique
Phat T. Nguyen, Nguyen L. K. Nguyen, Alexander N. Stameroff, Anh‐Vu Pham
Abstract
In this paper, an input transmission line loss compensation technique using resistive-capacitive (RC) degeneration is employed in an Indium Phosphide (InP) distributed amplifier (DA). The applied technique compensates for the loss of the DA’ <tex xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">$\mathbf{s}$</tex> input line and creates a positive gain slope for good gain at upper-end frequencies. The fabricated DA demonstrates an average gain of 12 dB from DC-170 GHz with input and output return losses better than −9 dB up to 120 GHz. The measured gain profile starts rising from 60 GHz with a slope of +0.085 dB/GHz, providing a peak gain of 19 dB at 150 GHz. From DC-160 GHz, the saturated power (Psat) is measured from 13.5 dBm to 11 dBm with a minimum output 1-dB compression point (OP1dB) of 8.9 dBm and an average output third-order intercept point (OIP3) of 17.5 dBm.