A Q-Band Low Noise Amplifier with 22-Db Gain and Ultralow 5.6-Mw Power Consumption Using GaAspHEMT Process

This paper presents a Q-band ultralow-power pseudomorphit high electron mobility transistor (pHEMT) low noise amplifier (LNA) MMIC. A novel low power technology has been proposed to decrease the DC power consumption of the amplifier. A series of lossy matching circuits have been properly designed to achieve a flat gain in the entire 42-48GHz frequency band. The fabricated LNA exhibits an excellent performance that the DC power consumption is as low as 5.6 mW with an average small-signal gain of 22.1 dB, where the minimum noise figure (NF) is 2.2 dB at 42.4 GHz. It exhibits the lowest power consumption with excellent gain and noise performance, among all Q-band GaAs pHEMT LNAs ever reported.