A Compact 10-18 GHz Wideband Driver Amplifier MMIC with 1dB Gain Variation

This paper presents a compact 10-18 GHz wideband driver amplifier monolithic microwave integrated circuit. A three-stage common source configured topology with feedback loop is employed to obtain low gain variation in wideband operation. The amplifier is fabricated using a 0.15 umGaAspHEMT process. It has a small chip size of 1.6 mm× 0.9 mm and is tested on chip. Measurement results show that the driver amplifier is able to work over 10 GHz to 18 GHz frequency range. The proposed driver amplifier exhibits a power gain of greater than 24 dB with a gain variation less than 1-dB. Output 1dB compression point of greater than 16.5 dBm and noise figure of less than 5.5 dB are achieved over the frequency range from 10 GHz to 18 GHz.