Development of Gallium Nitride Monolithic Microwave Integrated Circuits for Ka-Band Remote Sensing

We have been developing gallium nitride (GaN) monolithic microwave integrated circuits (MMICs) towards the goal of implementing a single chip transceiver frontend for cloud radar arrays at Ka-band. We present our first effort design, fabrication and test cycle implementation of GaN power amplifiers (PAs), low noise amplifiers (LNAs), driver amplifier, single-pole-double and triple throw switches, and voltage controlled attenuator. These components are necessary for implementing a transceiver unit cell concept with digital calibration capabilities to enable scalable array sizes for radar and radiometry.