An On-Board 50 GHz Band Low-Noise Amplifier for Millimeter Wave Personal Satellite Communications

An onboard 50 GHz band low-noise amplifier for millimeter wave personal satellite communications is developed. A 100-μ m-wide and 0.25-μ m-long gate HEMT is developed. An accurate S parameter of a device with bonding wire is successfully measured up to 40 GHz using MMIC technology. The characteristics of this amplifier are a 20 dB gain, 4.2 dB noise figure, and 20 dB input return loss over a 50.4 GHz to 51.4 GHz communication bandwidth at room temperature. At +60°C and -40°C, the maximum noise figures are 4.4 dB and 2.8 dB, respectively. There are no problems for the temperature cycle and modal survey test.