• The Journal of Korean Institute of Electromagnetic Engineering and Science
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• v.17 no.11 s.114
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• pp.1105-1111
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• 2006

In this paper, using low-temperature co-fired ceramic(LTCC) based system-in-package(SiP) technology, a very compact power amplifier LTCC module was designed, fabricated, and then characterized for 60 GHz wireless transmitter applications. In order to reduce the interconnection loss between a LTCC board and power amplifier monolithic microwave integrated circuits(MMIC), bond-wire transitions were optimized and high-isolated module structure was proposed to integrate the power amplifier MMIC into LTCC board. In the case of wire-bonding transition, a matching circuit was designed on the LTCC substrate and interconnection space between wires was optimized in terms of their angle. In addition, the wire-bonding structure of coplanar waveguide type was used to reduce radiation of EM-fields due to interconnection discontinuity. For high-isolated module structure, DC bias lines were fully embedded into the LTCC substrate and shielded with vias. Using 5-layer LTCC dielectrics, the power amplifier LTCC module was fabricated and its size is $4.6{\times}4.9{\times}0.5mm^3$. The fabricated module shows the gain of 10 dB and the output power of 11 dBm at P1dB compression point from 60 to 65 GHz.

• The Journal of Korean Institute of Electromagnetic Engineering and Science
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• v.10 no.7
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• pp.1044-1052
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• 1999

A 2-stage 1 watt MMIC(Monolithic Microwave Integrated Circuits) HPA(High Power Amplifiers) at 20 GHz band has been designed and fabricated. The $0.15\mu\textrm{m}$ with the width of $400\mu\textrm{m}$for single device pHEMT technology was used for the fabrication of this MMIC HPA. Due to the series feedback technique from source to ground, bias circuits and stabilization circuits on the main microstrip line, the stability factors(Ks) are more than one at full frequency. The independent operation for each stage and excellent S11, S22 less than -20 dB have been obtained by using lange couplers. For beginning the easy design, linear S-parameters have been extracted from the nonlinear equivalent circuit in foundry library, and equivalent circuits of devices at in/output ports were calculated from this S-parameters. The measured performances, which are in well agreement with the predicted ones, showed the MMIC HPA in this paper has the minimum 15 dB of linear gain, -20 dB of reflection coefficients and 31 dBm of output power over 17~25 GHz.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Information and Communication Engineering
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• v.18 no.11
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• pp.2697-2702
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• 2014

In this paper, we demonstrated a Ku-band 2W MMIC power amplifier for satellite communication applications. The device technology used relies on $0.25{\mu}m$ GaAs pseudomorphic high electron mobility transistor (PHEMT) of Wireless Information Networking (WIN) Semiconductor foundry. The 2W MMIC power amplifier has gain of over 29 dB and saturation output power of over 33.4 dBm in the frequency range of 13.75 ~ 14.5 GHz. Power added efficiency (PAE) is a 29 %. To our knowledge, this is the highest power added efficiency reported for any commercial GaAs-based 2W MMIC power amplifier in the Ku-band.

• Journal of IKEEE
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.425-430
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• 2019

This work describes the design and characterization of a X-band power amplifier (PA) monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC) using a $0.25{\mu}m$ gate length gallium nitride (GaN) high electron mobility transistor (HEMT) technology. The developed X-band power amplifier MMIC has small signal gain of over 22.7 dB and saturated output power of 43.02 dBm (20.04 W) over the entire band of 9 to 10 GHz. Maximum saturated output power is a 43.84 dBm (24.21 W) at 9.5 GHz. Its power added efficiency (PAE) is 41.0~51.24% and the chip dimensions are $3.7mm{\times}2.3mm$, generating the output power density of $2.84W/mm^2$. The developed GaN power amplifier MMIC is expected to be applied in a variety of X-band radar applications.

• Journal of IKEEE
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.1093-1097
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• 2020

This work describes the design and characterization of a Ku-band monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC) power amplifier (PA) for satellite communication applications. The device technology used relies on 0.25 ㎛ gate length gallium arsenide (GaAs) pseudomorphic high electron mobility transistor (PHEMT) of wireless information networking (WIN) semiconductor foundry. The developed Ku-band PHEMT MMIC power amplifier has a small-signal gain of 22.2~23.1 dB and saturated output power of 34.8~35.4 dBm over the entire band of 13.75 to 14.5 GHz. Maximum saturated output power is a 35.4 dBm (3.47 W) at 13.75 GHz. Its power added efficiency (PAE) is 30.6~37.83% and the chip dimensions are 4.4 mm×1.9 mm. The developed 3 W PHEMT MMIC power amplifier is expected to be applied in a variety of Ku-band satellite communication applications.

• Journal of IKEEE
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.722-727
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• 2022

In this paper, we present the design and characterization of a power amplifier (PA) monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC) in the X-band. The device is designed using a 0.25 ㎛ gate length AlGaN/GaN high electron mobility transistor (HEMT) on SiC process. The developed X-band AlGaN/GaN power amplifier MMIC achieves small signal gain of over 21.6 dB and output power more than 46.11 dBm (40.83 W) in the entire band of 9 GHz to 10 GHz. Its power added efficiency (PAE) is 43.09% ~ 44.47% and the chip dimensions are 3.6 mm × 4.3 mm. The generated output power density is 2.69 W/mm². It seems that the developed AlGaN/GaN power amplifier MMIC could be applicable to various X-band radar systems operating X-band.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Military Science and Technology
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.227-233
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• 2023

In this paper, to substitute the existing TWTA(Travailing Wave Tube Amplifier) component in small radar system, we developed the Ku band SSPA(Solid-State Power Amplifier) based on the fabrication of power MMIC (Monolithic Microwave Integrated Circuit) chips. For the development of the 500 W SSPA, the 40 W-grade power MMIC was designed by ADS(Advanced Design System) at Keysight company with UMS GH015 library, and was processed by UMS foundry service. And 70 W main power modules were achieved the 2-way T-junction combiner method by using the 40 W-grade power MMICs. Finally, the 500 W SSPA was fabricated by the wave guide type power divider between the drive power amplifier and power modules, and power combiner with same type between power modules and output port. The electrical properties of this SSPA had 504 W output power, -58.11 dBc spurious, 1.74 °/us phase variation, and -143 dBm/Hz noise level.

• Journal of IKEEE
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.33-37
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• 2024

In this paper, we report the design and the measurement of a X-band low noise amplifier (LNA) monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC) using a 0.25 ㎛ gate length microstrip GaN-on-SiC high electron mobility transistor (HEMT) technology. The developed X-band GaN-based LNA MMIC achieves small signal gain of 22.75 dB ~ 25.14 dB and noise figure of 1.84 dB ~ 1.94 dB in the desired band of 9 GHz to 10 GHz. Input and output return loss values are -11.36 dB ~ -24.49 dB and -11.11 dB ~ -17.68 dB, respectively. The LNA MMIC can withstand 40 dBm (10 W) input power without performance degradation. The chip dimensions are 3.67 mm × 1.15 mm. The developed GaN-based LNA MMIC is applicable to various X-band applications.

• The Journal of Korean Institute of Electromagnetic Engineering and Science
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• v.19 no.8
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• pp.844-853
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• 2008

This paper describes the design of a FEM(Front End Module) having power detection function for mobile handset application. The designed FEM consists of a MMIC(Monolithic Microwave Integrated Circuits) power amplifier chip, SAW Tx filter and duplexer, diode power detector and stripline matching circuit. An LTCC(Low Temperature Co-fired Ceramics) technology is adopted for miniaturized FEM. The frequency band is $824{\sim}869$ MHz which is the uplink Tx band of the CDMA mobile system. The size of designed FEM is $7.0{\times}5.5{\times}1.5\;mm^3$, which is an ultra-small size even though the power detector circuit is included. All sub-components of FEM have been developed and measured in advance before being integrated into FEM. The measured output power and gain are 27 dBm and 27 dB, respectively. In addition, the measured ACPR characteristics are 46.59 dBc and 55.5 dBc at 885 kHz and 1.98 MHz offset, respectively.

• Journal of the Korean Vacuum Society
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.207-214
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• 2005

This paper presents a channel structure for promising high performance pseudomorphic high electron mobility transistor(pHEMT) switching device for design and fabricating of microwave control circuits, such as switches, phase shifters, attenuators, limiters, for application in personal mobile communication systems. Using the designed epitaxial channel layer structure and ETRI's $0.5\mu$m pHEMT switch process, single pole double throw (SPDT) Tx/Rx monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC) switch was fabricated for 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz band wireless local area network (WLAN) systems. The SPDT switch exhibits a low insertion loss of 0.849 dB, high isolation of 32.638 dB, return loss of 11.006 dB, power transfer capability of 25dBm, and 3rd order intercept point of 42dBm at frequency of 5.8GHz and control voltage of 0/-3V These performances are enough for an application to 5 GHz band WLAN systems.