Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-mlc7c Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-20T00:05:32.406Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

An efficient W-band InP DHBT digital power amplifier

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 March 2017

Andreas Wentzel ,
Maruf Hossain ,
Dimitri Stoppel ,
Nils Weimann ,
Viktor Krozer  and
Wolfgang Heinrich
Andreas Wentzel*
Affiliation:
Ferdinand-Braun-Institut (FBH), Leibniz-Institut für Höchstfrequenztechnik, Gustav-Kirchhoff-Str. 4, Berlin, 12489, Germany
Maruf Hossain
Affiliation:
Ferdinand-Braun-Institut (FBH), Leibniz-Institut für Höchstfrequenztechnik, Gustav-Kirchhoff-Str. 4, Berlin, 12489, Germany
Dimitri Stoppel
Affiliation:
Ferdinand-Braun-Institut (FBH), Leibniz-Institut für Höchstfrequenztechnik, Gustav-Kirchhoff-Str. 4, Berlin, 12489, Germany
Nils Weimann
Affiliation:
Ferdinand-Braun-Institut (FBH), Leibniz-Institut für Höchstfrequenztechnik, Gustav-Kirchhoff-Str. 4, Berlin, 12489, Germany
Viktor Krozer
Affiliation:
Ferdinand-Braun-Institut (FBH), Leibniz-Institut für Höchstfrequenztechnik, Gustav-Kirchhoff-Str. 4, Berlin, 12489, Germany
Wolfgang Heinrich
Affiliation:
Ferdinand-Braun-Institut (FBH), Leibniz-Institut für Höchstfrequenztechnik, Gustav-Kirchhoff-Str. 4, Berlin, 12489, Germany
*
Corresponding author: A. Wentzel Email: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This paper presents for the first time high-efficiency W-band power amplifiers (PAs), the design of which follows the digital PA (DPA) design concept. Two DPAs with different output networks have been realized: a single-band version (S-DPA) for 95 GHz and a dual-band design (D-DPA) for signal frequencies fS of 68 GHz (first band) and 76 GHz (second band), respectively. The PAs are realized as monolithic microwave-integrated circuits (MMICs) in a 0.8 μm InP DHBT transferred-substrate process. They utilize a double-emitter-finger DHBT unit cell with an emitter area of 2 × 0.8 × 6 μm3 each. In contrast to the usual W-band PAs, the proposed single-stage amplifier MMICs do not apply any special reactive matching for the transistor, which leads to very compact chip sizes of 0.27 mm2 (S-DPA) and 0.39 mm2(D-DPA). The S-DPA includes one band-pass filter (BPF) at the output with 0.6 dB insertion loss (IL) and 24 dB input return loss (RL) at the signal frequency of 95 GHz. The dual-band BPF shows 0.7 dB IL in both bands with a RL of more than 21 dB each. Applying an overdriven sinusoidal input signal to emulate digital operation the DPAs achieve a maximum output power of 14.4 dBm and power-added efficiency of 31% when using the single-band configuration. Collector efficiencies of more than 80% and the flexible multi-band operation demonstrated prove the great potential of the digital PA concept for future high-speed communications.

Keywords

InP DHBTTransferred substrateMonolithic microwave-integrated circuit (MMIC)DigitalPower amplifier (PA)Band-pass filter (BPF)Millimeter-wave integrated circuitsMMIC circuit design
Type
Research Papers
Information
International Journal of Microwave and Wireless Technologies , Volume 9 , Special Issue 6: EuMW 2016 Special Issue , July 2017 , pp. 1241 - 1249
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press and the European Microwave Association 2017 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

[1] Samoska, L.: Towards terahertz MMIC amplifiers: present status and trends, in IEEE MTT-S Int. Microwave Symp. Digest, San Francisco, 2006, 333–336.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
[2] Song, H.-J.; Nagatsuma, T.: Present and future of terahertz communications. IEEE Trans. Terahertz Sci. Technol., 1 (1) (2011), 256–263.Google Scholar
[3] Daneshgar, S. et al. : High efficiency w-band power amplifiers using ring-shaped sub-quarter-wavelength power combining technique, in IEEE MTT-S Int. Microwave Symp. Digest, THP-15, Tampa, 2014.Google Scholar
[4] Micovic, M. et al. : 92–96 GHz GaN power amplifiers, in IEEE MTT-S Int. Microwave Symp. Digest, TU1D-1, Montreal, 2012.Google Scholar
[5] Brown, A. et al. : W-band GaN power amplifier MMICs, in IEEE MTT-S Int. Microwave Symp. Digest, WE3G-2, Baltimore, 2011.Google Scholar
[6] Song, P. et al. : A class-E tuned W-band SiGe power amplifier with 40.4% power-added efficiency at 93 GHz. IEEE Microw. Wireless Compon. Lett., 25 (10) (2015), 663–665.Google Scholar
[7] Wentzel, A. et al. : A Flexible GaN MMIC enabling digital power amplifiers for the future wireless infrastructure, in IEEE MTT-S Int. Microwave Symp. Digest, TH2B-5, Phoenix, 2015.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
[8] Wentzel, A., Hossain, M., Stoppel, D., Weimann, N., Krozer, V., Heinrich, W.: An efficient W-band InP DHBT digital power amplifier, in Proc. 11th Eur. Microwave Integrated Circuits Conf. (EuMiC), London, UK, 2016, 21–24.Google Scholar
[9] Weimann, N.G. et al. : SciFab – a wafer-level heterointegrated InP DHBT/SiGe BiCMOS process for mm-wave applications. Phys. Status Solidi A, 213 (4) (2016), 909–916.Google Scholar