Non-linear analysis of a Broadband Power Amplifier at 300 GHz

In this article we present a new method to measure the third-order intercept point (IP3) of a 300 GHz medium power amplifier MMIC based on III-V technology in an on-wafer measurement setup. The extraction was carried out using a uni-travelling carrier photodiode as the input signal source. Taking advantage of the photo-mixing phenomena we were able to generate two input RF signals using the same source, where these signals are used to extract the IP3 parameter of the MPA around 300 GHz. The PA with a small-signal gain of 18 dB achieves an input-related IP3 of -0.5 dBm at 300 GHz in the two-tone measurement with a tone spacing of 2 GHz.