Design and robustness improvement of high-performance LNA using 0.15 μm GaN technology for X-band applications

Abstract

In this paper, we present a highly robust GaN-based X-band low-noise amplifier (LNA) showing promising small-signal and noise performance as well as good linearity. The LNA is fabricated using in-house 0.15 μm AlGaN/GaN on a SiC HEMT process. Owing to the optimum choice of HEMT topologies and simultaneous matching technique, LNA achieves a noise figure better than 2 dB, output power at 1 dB gain compression higher than 19 dB, input and output reflection coefficients better than −9 and −11 dB, respectively. The small-signal gain of LNA is more than 19 dB for the whole band, and NF has a minimum of 1.74 dB at 10.2 GHz. LNA obtains an OIP3 up to 34.2 dBm and survives input power as high as 42 dBm. Survivability is investigated in terms of gain compression and forward gate current. Reverse recovery time (RRT), a crucial parameter for radar front-ends, is explored with respect to the RC time constant and trap phenomenon. The analysis shows that the significant contribution in RRT is due to traps while the RC time constant is in the nanoseconds range. Moreover, this study also addresses the requirement and choice of a DC gate feed resistor for the subsequent stages in a multi-stage design. The size of the designed LNA chip is 3 mm (Formula presented.) 1.2 mm only.