A 160-GHz, 10-dBm power amplifier for D-band communication in 0.1-μm GaAs pHEMT

This paper presents a D-band monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC) power amplifier fabricated in 0.1-μm GaAs pseudomorphic high electron mobility transistor (pHEMT) technology. It uses a common-source topology and consists of 4 transistor stages with a gate width of 2×25 μm. To reduce loss in the inter-stage matching circuits, a compact capacitor cell integrated with bias-line branches is designed. The amplifier shows a 3-dB gain bandwidth of 55 GHz from 105 GHz to 160 GHz and a saturated output power of 10 dBm at 160 GHz. It shows the highest operation frequency for the GaAs pHEMT process to our knowledge.