A Single-Stage Low-Noise SiGe HBT Distributed Amplifier with 13 dBm Output Power and 20 dB Gain in D-Band and over 170 GHz Bandwidth

This paper presents a single-stage distributed amplifier with an average gain of 19 dB and over 170 GHz bandwidth (measurement limited) resulting in > 1.5 THz gain-bandwidth product (GBW). The amplifier is composed of 10 gain sections using an emitter follower buffered cascode stage and is implemented in a 130-nm SiGe BiCMOS process with 470 GHz f T / 650 GHz f max HBT. The amplifier has over 14 dBm saturated output power (Psat) in W-Band and averages 13 dBm Psat with 20 dB gain in D-Band. Additionally, an average noise figure of 4.7 dB was measured over the complete 75 - 110 GHz range. This amplifier has, to the author's knowledge, the highest single-stage GBW reported to date while at the same time providing high output power and the best reported wideband noise figure for SiGe BiCMOS amplifiers in W-Band.