A fully integrated 6–18 GHz transmit/receive MMIC frontend implemented in 150-nm GaN-on-SiC technology

Resumen

This work presents a monolithic transmit/receive (T/R) frontend covering the 6–18-GHz frequency band and implemented in 150-nm gallium-nitride (GaN) technology. The benefits of single-die integration are harnessed through a topdown, system-level co-design approach, where specifications and system tradeoffs are addressed directly at the die level: an asymmetric T/R switch simplifies the transmit path to save for output power and efficiency, while its receive branch is merged with the low-noise amplifier’s input matching network for improved compactness and sensitivity; the floorplan is optimized from the start, implementing single-side biasing for all subcircuits to minimize T/R coupling. On-wafer measurements demonstrate an average transmit output power of 9.5 W (minimum of 5.6 W) with 19.4% efficiency (minimum of 13.5%) across the target bandwidth. In receive mode, the prototypes achieve over 21-dB gain with an average noise figure of 3 dB (maximum of 3.3 dB). These results are consistent with, and in some aspects exceed, those reported in the literature for ultrawideband GaN-based single-chip T/R frontends. Furthermore, the prototypes were also successfully tested in bare–die configuration on a custom evaluation fixture, confirming robust performance under realistic system conditions with only minor degradation compared with on-wafer measurements. © 1963-2012 IEEE.