HBT MMIC 75 GHz and 78 GHz power amplifiers

We report W band MMIC power amplifiers in an InGaAs/InAlAs HBT technology. A cascode amplifier with an emitter area of 100 /spl mu/m/sup 2/ and a total die size of 0.42/spl times/0.36 /spl mu/m/sup 2/ delivers 10 dBm at 75 GHz under 1.7 dB of gain compression. A balanced amplifier composed of two such cascode cells delivers 10.7 dBm at 78 GHz under 1 dB of gain compression. A common-base amplifier delivers 9.7 dBm at 82.5 GHz under 0.8 dB of gain compression. To the best of our knowledge, these results represent the best reported power performance at W band for HBT MMIC amplifiers.