A 185-GHz Low-Noise Amplifier Using a 35-nm InP HEMT Process

We present a four-stage, 185-GHz indium phosphide (InP) high electron mobility transistor (HEMT) low-noise amplifier (LNA) implemented with coplanar waveguide (CPW) inductive degeneration and designed with a procedure using noise measure. At 194 GHz, the LNA exhibits a peak 19.6 dB of gain with an input 1-dB compression point (P1dB) of −23.7 dBm at 190 GHz. To our knowledge, this is the first P 1 dB measurement over frequency for this technology. Over a frequency range covering 175 to 200 GHz, the LNA exhibits noise figure (NF) ranging from 9.8 to 11.4 dB. The amplifier consumes 22 mW of power and 0.77 mm2 of area. Additionally, a novel figure of merit (FoM) based on noise measure is proposed to evaluate designs across technologies independent of the number of stages.