A Ka Broadband High Gain Monolithic LNA with a Noise Figure of 2dB

A four-stage monolithic microwave integrated circuits (MMIC) low noise amplifier (LNA) operating from 23 to 36GHz is reported using commercially available 0.15μm PHEMT technology.The LNA is self-biased.To achieve a low noise characteristic,careful optimizations of gate width are performed to reduce gate resistance.Absorption circuits and an elaborate bias structure with a resistor-capacitor network are employed to improve stability.Multiple resonance points and negative feedback technologies are used to widen the bandwidth.Measurements show a noise figure (NF) of less than 2.0dB,and the lowest NF is only 1.6dB at a frequency of 31GHz.In the whole operation band,the LNA has a gain of higher than 26dB,and an input return loss and output return loss of more than 11 and 13dB,respectively.The output power at 1dB compression gain of 36GHz is about 14dBm.The chip area is 2.4mm×1mm.