A Q-band LNA with 55.7% bandwidth for radio astronomy applications in 0.15-μm GaAs pHEMT process

In this paper, we present a broadband Q-band LNA for radio astronomy applications using 0.15-μm GaAs pseudomorphic high electron mobility transistor (pHEMT) process. With bandwidth enhancement techniques, the LNA achieves relatively broadband performance. The LNA attains 23 dB small signal gain from 28.5 to 50.5 GHz and shows a measured noise figure of 3.8 dB from 35 to 50 GHz with 62.6-mW dc power consumption. The figure-of-merit (FOM) of the LNA is 3.5 (GHz/mW), which is competitive compared with other published Q-band LNAs.

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