5 mW GaAs HBT low power consumption X-band amplifier

We report on a 5 mW GaAs HBT low power consumption X-band amplifier which benchmarks the highest gain to dc power quotient figure of merit reported for HBT technology. This amplifier utilizes the inherently high maximum available/stable gain of our 2-/spl mu/m self-aligned base ohmic metal GaAs HBTs. The X-band amplifier design consists of 4-sections and can achieve 13.1 dB gain at 12 GHz with less than 5 mW of power consumption The amplifier is resistively self-biased with 2.1 volts, and each 2/spl times/10 /spl mu/m/sup 2/ single-emitter HBT draws 0.5 mA with a Vce bias of 2 volts. The corresponding 1-dB compression is -21.5 dBm. By increasing the total bias current to 50 mA, the amplifier achieves a gain of 39 dB, an IP3 of 13.5 dBm, and a P-1dB of 5.5 dBm while consuming a total of 235 mW.<>