An MMIC LNA for Millimeter-Wave Radar and 5G Applications with GaN-on-SiC Technology

This paper presents a monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC) low noise amplifier (LNA) that is compatible with n257 (26.5–29.5 GHz) and n258 (24.25–27.5 GHz) frequency bands for fifth-generation mobile communications system (5G) and millimeter-wave radar. The total circuit size of the LNA is 2.5 × 1.5 mm2. To guarantee a trade-off between noise figure (NF) and small signal gain, the transmission lines are connected to the source of gallium nitride (GaN)-on-SiC high electron mobility transistors (HEMT) by analyzing the nonlinear small signal equivalent circuit. A series of stability enhancement measures including source degeneration, an RC series network, and RF choke are put forward to enhance the stability of designed LNA. The designed GaN-based MMIC LNA adopts hybrid-matching networks (MNs) with co-design strategy to realize low NF and broadband characteristics across 5G n257 and n258 frequency band. Due to the different priorities of these hybrid-MNs, distinguished design strategies are employed to benefit small signal gain, input-output return loss, and NF performance. In order to meet the testing conditions of MMIC, an impeccable system for measuring small has been built to ensure the accuracy of the measured results. According to the measured results for small signal, the three-stage MMIC LNA has a linear gain of 18.2–20.3 dB and an NF of 2.5–3.1 dB with an input–output return loss better than 10 dB in the whole n257 and n258 frequency bands.