GaAs MMIC Low Noise Amplifier With Integrated High-Power Absorptive Receive Protection Switch

This letter reports a GaAs monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC) low noise amplifier (LNA) with integrated high-power absorptive receive protection switch realized using 0.13-μm GaAs pHEMT process. On-the-chip current distributed, resonant shunt FET switch configuration is employed for higher power handling. FET stacking technique is used to reduce the effective noise figure (NF). A two-stage LNA with integrated high power switch, forming each arm in a balanced configuration is employed to realize a monolithic LNA with integrated absorptive receive protection switch. This novel MMIC provides protection up to 20-W continuous wave and 2.9-dB NF, a gain of 20 dB over 9.3-9.9 GHz.