A 220–260 GHz medium power variable gain amplifier MMIC with low phase variation

A variable gain amplifier (VGA) operating in the WR3 frequency range (220 to 325GHz) with low phase variation is presented. The VGA is carried out as balanced amplifier with a three-stage cascode amplifier in each path. The small-signal gain is 24.2dB with a 3 dB bandwidth of 43GHz ranging from 218.8 to 261.8 GHz. Within a gain control range of 17dB the phase variation is below −5° and +10°. The large signal behavior shows a maximum output power Psat of 7.4dBm at 240 GHz with a saturated gain of 12dB. The MMIC was fabricated in a 50 nm InGaAs technology and has a chip size of 1.25 × 0.75mm2.

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