V-Band Terminal Low Noise Amplifier

ABSTRACT: Low Noise Amplifiers covering the 71-76 GHz and 81-86 GHz bands with ultra-low noise figures of less than 1.5 and 1.7 dB at the MMIC level, and 1.8 and 2.0 dB at the modules waveguide flange level, respectively, are proposed. This represents a reduction of nominally over 1.0 dB over one newly announced MMIC, and over 3 dB reduction relative to all other commercial LNAs. V-band ground terminals are the near-term application. In addition there is a continuing need for front-end components to exploit the available 5 GHz bandwidth for both space and terrestrial government and commercial communications links. The LNAs will be compact, have minimal power consumption, and be producible. They will be operable over the -40 to +80 Deg. C range, and can be expected to have very low noise temperatures when operated at cryogenic temperatures. The proposed technologies, 50 nm InGaAs MHEMTs grown on GaAs or 35-50 nm InP HEMTs, will have a path to space-qualification i.e. high reliability and radiation-hardened (81-86 GHz uplink). Additional circuitry such as on-MMIC limiters, linearizers, and attenuators will be simulated as improvements in survivability, dynamic range and gain-control. The noise figure, gain, power consumption and dynamic range, and other characteristics will; BENEFIT: The near-term, driving, application of the ultra-low-noise amplifiers is V-band ground terminals. In general, government and military applications include satellite downlink and uplink reception of spectrally efficient waveforms, satellite-to-satellite links, full-waveguide bandwidth weather and ice-coverage observation, radio astronomy (low-power consumption cooled and cryogenic LNAs), battlefield communications, and secure communications. Dual-use applications include easily-licensed small-antenna full-duplex links with 5 GHz bandwidth, licensed on a link basis rather than a broadcast basis. The technology is transferrable to communications applications in general.