0.3-14 and 16-28 GHz Wide-Bandwidth Cryogenic MMIC Low-Noise Amplifiers

Journal article, 2018

We present two monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC) cryogenic broadband low-noise amplifiers (LNAs) based on the 100 nm gate length InP high-electron mobility transistor technology for the frequency range of 0.3-14 and 16-28 GHz. The 0.3-14 GHz three-stage LNA exhibited a gain of 41.6 ± 1.4 dB and an average noise temperature of 3.5 K with a minimum noise temperature of 2.2 K at 6 GHz when cooled down to 4 K. The 16-28 GHz three-stage LNA showed a gain of 32.3 ± 1.8 dB and an average noise temperature of 6.3 K with a minimum noise temperature of 4.8 K at 20.8 GHz at the ambient temperature of 4 K. This is the first demonstration of cryogenic MMIC LNA covering the whole K-band. To the best of the authors' knowledge, the cryogenic MMIC LNAs demonstrated the state-of-the-art noise performance in the 0.3-14 and 16-28 GHz frequency range.