• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea TC
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• v.43 no.10 s.352
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• pp.90-97
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• 2006

We report our research work on the millimeter-wave broadband amplifier integrating the shunt peaking technology with the cascode configuration. The millimeter-wave broadband cascode amplifier on MIMIC technology was designed and fabricated using $0.1{\mu}m\;{\Gamma}-gate$ GaAs PHEMT, CPW, and passive library. The fabricated PHEMT has shown a transconductance of 346.3 mS/mm, a current gain cut off frequency ($f_T$) of 113 GHz, and a maximum oscillation frequency ($f_{max}$) of 180 GHz. To prevent oscillation of designed cascode amplifier, a parallel resistor and capacitor were connected to drain of common-gate device. For expansion of the bandwidth and flatness of the gain, we inserted the short stub into bias circuits and the compensation transmission line between common-source device and common-gate device, and then their lengths were optimized. Also, the input and output stages were designed using the matching method to obtain the broadband characteristic. From the measurement, we could confirm to extend bandwidth and flat gain by integrating the shunt peaking technology with the cascode configuration. The cascode amplifier shows the broadband characteristic from 19 GHz to 53.5 GHz. Also, the average gain of this amplifier is about 6.5 dB over the bandwidth.

• The Transactions of The Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers
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• v.58 no.5
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• pp.999-1003
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• 2009

We have designed and fabricated a linear drive amplifier with a novel intermodulation distortion(IMD) canceller using $0.18{\mu}m$ CMOS process. The drive amplifier with IMD canceller is composed of a cascode main amplifier and an additional common-source IMD canceller. Since the IMD canceller generates IM3($3^{rd}$-order imtermodulation) signal with $180^{\circ}$ phase difference against the IM3 of the cascode main amplifier, the IM3 power is drastically eliminated. As of the measurement results, $OP_{1dB}$, $OIP_3$, and power-add efficiency are 5.5 dBm, 15.5 dBm, and 21%, respectively. Those are 5 dB, 6 dB, and 13.5% enhanced values compared to a conventional cascode drive amplifier. The IMD3 of the drive amplifier with IMD canceller is enhanced more than 10 dB compared to that of the conventional cascode drive amplifier for input power ranges from -22 to -14 dBm.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea TC
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• v.41 no.8
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• pp.105-111
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• 2004

In this paper, millimeter-wave high gain and broadband MHEMT cascode amplifiers were designed and fabricated. The 0.1 ${\mu}{\textrm}{m}$ InGaAs/InAlAs/GaAs Metamorphic HEMT was fabricated for cascode amplifiers. The DC characteristics of MHEMT are 640 mA/mm of drain current density, 653 mS/mm of maximum transconductance. The current gain cut-off frequency(f$_{T}$) is 173 GHz and the maximum oscillation frequency(f$_{max}$) is 271 GHz. By using the CPW transmission line, the cascode amplifier was designed the matched circuit for getting the broadband characteristics. The designed amplifier was fabricated by the MHEMT MIMIC process that was developed through this research. As the results of measurement, the 1 stage amplifier obtained 3 dB bandwidth of 37 GHz between 31.3 to 68.3 GHz. Also, this amplifier represents the S21 gain with the average 9.7 dB gain in bandwidth and the maximum gain of 11.3 dB at 40 GHz. The 2 stage amplifier has the broadband characteristics with 3 dB bandwidth of 29.5 GHz in the frequency range from 32.5 to 62.0 GHz. The 2 stage cascode amplifier represents the high gain characteristics with the average gain of 20.4 dB in bandwidth and the maximum gain of 22.3 dB at 36.5 GHz.z.z.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea SD
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• v.44 no.9
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• pp.18-24
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• 2007

We report broadband cascode amplifiers of a single-ended and a balanced amplifier for the millimeter-wave applications. The amplifiers were fabricated using 0.1 ${\mu}m\;{\Gamma}-gate$ PHEMT technology on GaAs substrate. The single-ended cascode amplifier was designed and fabricated by using shunt peaking technology. The fabricated single-ended cascode amplifier shows 3 dB bandwidth of 37 GHz($18.5{\sim}55.5$ GHz) and the maximum $S_{21}$ gain of 9.38 dB. The balanced cascode amplifier using tandem couplers achieves 3 dB bandwidth and the maximum $S_{21}$ gain of 44.5 GHz($21{\sim}65.5$ GHz) and 10.4 dB at 60 GHz, respectively. The 3 dB bandwidth of the balanced cascode amplifier shows 20% lager than the single-ended cascode amplifier.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.278-283
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• 2013

This paper presents a design and fabrication of 0.5 V two stage operational amplifier. The proposed operational amplifier utilizes body-driven differential input stage and self-cascode current mirror structure. Cadence Virtuoso is used for layout and the layout data is verified by LVS through Mentor Calibre. The proposed two stage operational amplifier is fabricated using $0.13{\mu}m$ CMOS process and operation at 0.5 V is confirmed. Measured low frequency small signal gain of operational amplifier is 50 dB, power consumption is $29{\mu}W$ and chip area is $75{\mu}m{\times}90{\mu}m$.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea SD
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• v.45 no.4
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• pp.1-6
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• 2008

In this paper, millimeter-wave broadband MHEMT (Metamorphic High Electron Mobility Transistor) cascode amplifiers were designed and fabricated. The $0.1{\mu}m$ InGaAs/InAlAs/GaAs MHEMT was fabricated for cascode amplifiers. The DC characteristics of MHEMT are 670 mA/mm of drain current density, 588 mS/mm of maximum transconductance. The current gain cut-off frequency($f_T$) is 139 GHz and the maximum oscillation frequency($f_{max}$) is 266 GHz. To prevent oscillation of the designed cascode amplifiers, a parallel resistor and capacitor were connected to the drain of common gate device. By using the CPW (Coplanar Waveguide) transmission line, the cascode amplifier was designed and matched for the broadband characteristics. The designed amplifier was fabricated by the MHEMT MMIC process that was developed through this research. As the results of measurement, the amplifier was obtained 3 dB bandwidth of 50.37 GHz between 20.76 to 71.13 GHz. Also, this amplifier represents the S21 gain with the average 7.07 dB gain in bandwidth and the maximum gain of 10.3 dB at 30 GHz.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Information and Commucation Sciences Conference
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• 2009.05a
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• pp.678-681
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• 2009

A single-pixel photon counter is designed using a folded cascode CMOS operational amplifier which is self-biased. Since there is no need for a voltage bias circuit, the layout area and power consumption of the designed counter are reduced. The signal voltage of the designed charge sensitive amplifier (CSA) with the MagnaChip $0.18{\mu}m$ CMOS process is simulated to be 138mv, near the theoretical voltage of 151mV. And the layout area of the designed counter is $100{\mu}m{\times}100{\mu}m$.

• Proceedings of the IEEK Conference
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• 2002.06b
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• pp.309-312
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• 2002

In this paper, we discuss the design of high gain low noise amplifier by using the 0.2sum CMOS technology. A cascode inverter is adopted to implement the low noise amplifier. The proposed cascode inverter LNA is one stage amplifier with a voltage reference and without choke inductors. The designed 2.4GHz LNA achieves a power gain of 25dB, a noise figure of 2.2dB, and power consumption of 255㎽ at 2.5V power supply.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Information and Communication Engineering
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.647-653
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• 2005

According to the design concept of microwave front-end, a low noise amplifier block using HBT cascode topology is proposed to provide high gain and low noise figure with low bias current. We has implemented MMIC-LNA with a modified configuration using inductors to show low noise at the emitter and base of cascoded HBT-MMIC amplifier. The measured performance of the designed MMIC-LNA at 3.7GHz are a gain of 19dB, noise figure of 2.7dB and image rejection of 35dBc using a supply of 3mA and 2.7V. We can convinced that cascoded amplifier block to fulfill a high gain, low noise and image rejection if microwave front-end receiver is designed by cascode MMEC-LNA with the active image rejection filter.

• The Journal of Korean Institute of Electromagnetic Engineering and Science
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• v.16 no.5 s.96
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• pp.482-487
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• 2005

In this paper, we propose the control method of output impedance of each cascode unit cell of distributed amplifier by connecting varactors in the gate-terminal of common gate. Compared to common source unit cell, cascode unit cell has many advantages such as high gain and high output impedance as well as negative resistance loading. But if the transistor model which is used in design is inaccurate and process parameter is changed, oscillation sometimes can occur at band edge in which the gain start to drop. Therefore, we need control circuit which can prevent oscillation, although the circuit has already fabricated, and varactor connected to gate-terminal of common gate of cascode gain cell can play that part. Measured result of fabricated distributed amplifier shows the capability of contol of gain characteristic by adjusting of value of varactors, this can guarantee the stability of the circuit. The gain is $8.92\pm0.82dB$ over 49 GHz, the group delay is $\pm9.3 psec$ over 41 GHz. All transistor which has $0.15{\mu}m$ gate length is GaAs based p-HEMT, and distributed amplifier is put together with 4 stages.