W-band amplifier fabricated by optical stepper lithography

A 3-stage 90-100 GHz amplifier has been designed and fabricated using optical stepper lithography which is suited for a high volume production of low cost millimeter wave integrated circuits. The amplifier demonstrates 14.7 dB gain at 94 GHz in conjunction with a noise figure of 6 dB and 9 dBm output power for 1 dB gain compression. The saturated output power is 11 dBm which corresponds to an output power density of 157 mW/mm.