W-Band MMIC chipset in 0.1-㎛ mHEMT technology

• Published in: ETRI journal 2020, Vol.42 (4), p.549-561
• Main Authors: Lee, Jong-Min, Chang, Woo-Jin, Kang, Dong Min, Min, Byoung-Gue, Yoon, Hyung Sup, Chang, Sung-Jae, Jung, Hyun-Wook, Kim, Wansik, Jung, Jooyong, Kim, Jongpil, Seo, Mihui, Kim, Sosu
• Format: Article
• Language: Korean
• ISSN: 1225-6463; 2233-7326

We developed a 0.1-㎛ metamorphic high electron mobility transistor and fabricated a W-band monolithic microwave integrated circuit chipset with our in-house technology to verify the performance and usability of the developed technology. The DC characteristics were a drain current density of 747 mA/mm and a maximum transconductance of 1.354 S/mm; the RF characteristics were a cutoff frequency of 210 GHz and a maximum oscillation frequency of 252 GHz. A frequency multiplier was developed to increase the frequency of the input signal. The fabricated multiplier showed high output values (more than 0 dBm) in the 94 GHz-108 GHz band and achieved excellent spurious suppression. A low-noise amplifier (LNA) with a four-stage single-ended architecture using a common-source stage was also developed. This LNA achieved a gain of 20 dB in a band between 83 GHz and 110 GHz and a noise figure lower than 3.8 dB with a frequency of 94 GHz. A W-band image-rejection mixer (IRM) with an external off-chip coupler was also designed. The IRM provided a conversion gain of 13 dB-17 dB for RF frequencies of 80 GHz-110 GHz and image-rejection ratios of 17 dB-19 dB for RF frequencies of 93 GHz-100 GHz.