A Fully Matched Ku-band 9W PHEMT MMIC High

Power Amplifier
C. H. Lin, H. Z. Liu, C. K. Chu, H. K. Huang, and C. C. Liu, C. H. Chang, C. L. Wu and, and
Y. H. Wang * C. S. Chang

Institute of Microelectronics, Department of Electrical Transcom, Inc. Tainan, 741 Taiwan, R.O.C.
Engineering, National Cheng-Kung University,
Tainan, 701 Taiwan.
*E-mail:

Abstract A 9 watt AlGaAs/InGaAs/GaAs PHEMT NVIMVIIC
power amplifier for ku band applications is presented. This two-
stage amplifier with chip size of 11.12 mm2 (4.52 mm x 2.46 mm)
is designed to fully match 50 ohm input and output impedance.
With 8 volts and 900 mA DC bias condition, 12 dB small signal
gain, 39.5 dBm (9 watt) saturated output power with 30% power-
added efficiency from 14 to 14.2 GHz can be achieved. This high
power amplifier also achieved the best power densities (809 mW/
mm2) at ku band reported to date.
Keywords-Ku-Band, MMIC, power amplifier, PHEMT
I. INTRODUCTION
Recently, with the growth of Ku-band applications, the
demands of high power amplifier (HPA) at small size and low
cost have been significantly increased. In terms of cost, the
PHIEMT MMICs is a better solution than internally matched
FETs (IM-FETs) to these systems. Fully monolithic MMICs
also offer many advantages, including using multi-stage to
achieve high gain, high-volume manufacturing capability and
good reproducibility. Furthermore, HPA MMIC with small
chip size is necessary to reduce the manufacturing cost.
In this work, a compact 9 watt AlGaAs/InGaAs/GaAs
PHIEMT MMIC power amplifier operating at Ku-band will be
demonstrated. This two-stage amplifier achieved 12 dB small
signal gain and 39.5 dBm (9 watt) saturated output power with
30% power-added efficiency (PAE) from 14 to 14.2 GHz. A
comparison of results reported to date in Ku-band HPA MMIC
is shown in Table 1. Compared with previous reports, this
MMIC shows the highest output power with high output
power density which is defined by output power over chip
area.
II.CIRCUIT DESIGN
For circuit simulation and optimization, an accurate small-
signal model for 1.2 mm PHIEMT was established by de-
embedded two port S-parameters from 2 to 18 GHz, which are
measured by VNA HP8510C. The extractions of the parasitic
and intrinsic parameters were performed by using cold-FET
and hot-FET methods, respectively [5]. Based on the accurate
1.2 mm PIiEMT model, the model for 2.1 mm PHEMT size is
established for circuit simulation. The photograph of the
MMIC as shown in Fig. 1 is 4.52 mm x 2.46 mm. The
schematic drawing of the whole amplifier, including the driver
stage and the output power stage, is shown in Fig. 2. The
periphery of the FETs for driver-stage PIiEMT and the output-
power-stage PHEMT are 8.4 mm and 16.8 mm, respectively.
This arrangement of PHEMT aspect ratio is 2: 1, which
ensures that the output power of driver-stage is large enough
to drive the output device into saturation over process

TABLE I. COMPARISON OF KU-BAND PHEMT HIGH POWER MMIC

[Pout(dBm)
Pou(dm)
Power density PAL(0)
PA
Power Band Signal
Signal) Stage
Stage Output Periphery Chip Area Refen
Rernc
(mW/mm2) (GHlz) (mm) (mm2)
39.5 809 30 14-14.2 12 2 16.8 11.12 Thiswork

39 709 22 13.5-15 22 3 16 11.21 [I]

37.8 574 30 Ku/K 23 3 16.64 10.5 [2]
35 200 40 8-14 17 2 6.4 15.78 [3]
38.5 379 27 12.5-14.5 19 3 14.4 18.48 [4]

1-4244-0126-7/06/$20.00 02006 IEEE. 165

variation. The odd-node clamping resistors were added
between the FETs to suppress the push-pull oscillation.
Figure 1. Photograph of the developed PHEMT MMIC power amplifier
Figure 2. Schematic of two-stage Ku-Band 9W PHEMT MMIC power
amplifier
To design a power amplifier, the first matching network is
the output matching, which transfers maximum output power
from the FET to a 50 Q system. The required optimum large-
signal load impedance Zopt,Q2 can be extracted from the Cripps
technique [6], which is composed of RoptQ2 and Cds,Q2. The
Ropt Q2 iS calculated from the bias point of the amplifier, which
is selected for class AB operation of the device to obtain the
best compromise of output power and PAE. The parameter
Cds,Q2 is obtained from the small-signal model. It is noticeable
that the output matching network should be dedicated to
minimize the combiner losses, thus ensuring maximum
possible efficiency. In this network, distributed elements were
used in realizing impedance transfer. No MIM capacitors were
166
used except a series DC block and terminations on the bias
lines. And the capacitance value of DC block capacitor and
bypass capacitor is 2.5 pF and 7 pF, respectively, which are
not sensitive to the impedance transfer in output matching
circuit. The inter-stage network is then designed to lower the
mismatch loss between driver-stage and output-power-stage.
The power matching for the Ropt QI and CdS Ql was also used to
maximize the output power from the driver-stage. The input-
matching network was used to improve gain flatness and
impedance match for better input return loss. Based on the
essential matching network, extensive EM simulator using
Zeland IE3D was performed to achieve the required circuit
performance and evaluate coupling effect between
components. The lossy match is used by the gate resistors of
each stage to improve the stability. Then the circuit stability is
further confirmed by the simulation of K and A factor.
III. MMIC IMPLEMENTATION
The ku-band MMICs were processed by conventional
optical lithography technique on AlGaAs/InGaAs/GaAs
PHEMT structure prepared by molecular beam epitaxy [7]-[8].
Typical dc characteristics of the saturated drain current,
transconductance, breakdown voltage and pinch-off voltage
are 300 mA/mm, 250 mS/mm, 18 V and -1.6V, respectively.
During the front-side processes, the active region was firstly
isolated by mesa-etching solution, an HF base solution. Then
the AuGe/Ni/Au was evaporated to form the source and drain
ohmic contacts by a 420°C anneal. The Ti/Pt/Au was
deposited for the Schottky gate by lift-off process before
double recess etching. A thickness of 1500 A silicon nitride
was used for both MIM capacitor and passivation. The air
bridges and microstrip lines was performed by using Au-
plating, which the thickness is more than 2.5 pim. The gate
length of the PIHEMT is 0.35 pm and gate widths are 8.4 mm
(Ql) and 16.8 mm (Q2), respectively. In order to reach low
thermal resistance and to lower source-grounding inductance,
the thickness of the GaAs substrate is thinned to 3-mil and the
source pads are directly grounded with via-hole.
4
I= -8;
-12
-16
-20 _
13.6
Frequency(GHz)
Figure 3. The measured and simulated small signal gain, input /output
return loss (dB) versus frequency
 IV. MEASUREMENTS
The bias condition for the MMIC is Vd,= 8 V and Ids = 900
mA. Fig. 3 shows the measured small signal gain and
input/output return losses of the designed PHIEMT amplifier. It
can be seen that the small-signal gain is greater than 12 dB in
the frequency range between 13.6 and 14.5 GHz. And the
corresponding input return loss varies from 6.74 to 11.15 dB,
and the output return loss is from 11.54 to 17.37 dB. These
values indicate that the performance of the fabricated HPA is
in accordance with the initial design specifications.
The output power and PAE versus input power at the
frequency 14 GHz are shown in Fig. 4. From this
measurement, the saturated output power is 39.5 dBm with
30.4% of PAE. Fig. 5 displays the output power and PAE as
functions of frequency under two test conditions. The
saturated output power is 39.5 dBm with 30% PAE from 14 to
14.2 GHz while bias condition is Vd½= 8 V and Ids = 900 mA.
If Ids is set to 2000 mA, 39 dBm of output power can be
achieved over the frequency range from 14 to 14.4 GHz.

0
CL 24
40

36

28

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40
35
30

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20

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5z0

40

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20 V

10
k

16
0 --m-

18 20 22
.
Fig. 6 shows the third order inter modulation (IMD3) and
the third order intercept point (IP3) versus output power per
tone characteristic of this HPA under the condition of 10 MHz
tone spacing. When the bias condition is Vd.= 8 V and ds =
2000 mA, the IP3 of this MMIC at 14 GHz is above 1dB gain
compression output power between 7 to 8.5 dB.
60

:24 26
8V2000nmA
-A-IMD3
--IP3

-E

Output Power/tone (dBm)

28

Figure 6. IMD3 and IP3 performance of Ku-band HPA at 14 GHz

V. CONCLUSION

In this work, a compact 9 watt Ku-band PIHEMT MMIC

high power amplifier has been successfully demonstrated.
30
ou

55

50 V

45

4~~

This amplifier was designed to fully match 50 ohm input and

output impedance without any external circuit. The
Pin (dBm) performances of this MMIC are with saturated output power
of 39.5 dBm, power-added efficiency of 30%, 12 dB small
signal gain and better than 11 dB output return loss. To our
Figure 4. Measured output power (dBm) and PAE (%) as a function of knowledge, this MMIC shows the highest output power with
input power (dBm) at 14 GHz high output power density at Ku-band reported to date.

42 55
8V,9OOmA 8V2000mA 50 ACKNOWLEDGMENT
41 -A- P
out 3dB
40 L -A-PAE -a-PAE 45
The authors wish to acknowledge the assistance and
40 support of Transcom, Inc. for assembling and testing the
M39 -
MMIC. This work was also supported in part by the National
35 w
= 38 -
Science Council of Taiwan under contract NSC95-2221-E-
0
a- f AD 30 006-428-MY3 and the Foundation of Chen, Jieh-Chen
37 k .scholarschip (Tainan, Taiwan)
25
36 :20
35 15 REFERENCES
13.8 13.9 14.0 14.1 14.2 14.3 14.4 14.5
Frequency (GHz)
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