Comparison of a 35-nm and a 50-nm gate-length metamorphic HEMT technology for millimeter-wave low-noise amplifier MMICs

Based on two low-noise amplifier (LNA) millimeter-wave integrated circuits (MMICs), this paper reports on a comparison between a 35-nm and a 50-nm gate-length metamorphic high-electron-mobility transistor technology. The LNA targets applications in an extended W-band with an operating frequency between 67-116 GHz. Both MMICs yield an |S
₂₁
| of at least 20 dB for more than an octave bandwidth. The average|S
₂₁
| of the 35-nm (LNA 1) and 50-nm LNA (LNA 2) is 26.2 dB and 25 dB, respectively. The measured noise figure of LNA 1 and LNA 2 achieves an excellent average value for the entire W-band (75-110 GHz) of 1.9 dB and 2.1 dB, respectively. To the best of the authors' knowledge LNA 1 is the first MMIC which yields an average noise figure of 1.9 dB over the entire W-band.