A novel broadband bidirectional matrix amplifier

The design, fabrication, and performance of a 6-18 GHz, 2*5 bidirectional matrix distributed amplifier is described. This amplifier, having two bidirectional distributed amplifier chains stacked together, shares the same gain elements in both the transmit and receive directions. The amplifier has shown >10 dB gain with better than +or-0.5 dB of gain tracking and +or-5.0 degrees of phase tracking between the transmit and receive directions over the 7-17 GHz frequency band. In addition, the biasing scheme of this amplifier enables the stages to be connected in cascade at RF frequencies and in cascode for DC biasing, thus conserving current.<
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