HEMT mm-wave amplifiers, mixers and oscillators

This paper describes the design and development of a multi-stage low noise, high electron mobility transistor (HEMT) amplifier, a HEMT dielectric resonator stabilized oscillator, and an HEMT mixer. The amplifier consists of three cascaded single-ended stages and covers the frequency range of 36 to 40 GHz. Typical performance to date has been 6 dB gain and 3 dB noise figure for a single stage and 15 to 17 dB gain with a 4 to 4.6 dB noise figure for the three stages. The HEMT dielectric resonator stabilized oscillator uses a dielectric resonator in the TE(018) mode as the feedback element. The nominal frequency of the oscillator is 44 GHz with a power output of 0 dBm and DC to RF efficiency of 5 percent. The HEMT mixer exhibits unity conversion gain of + or - 1 dB over a 2 GHz bandwidth, and 7 to 8 dB SSB noise figure, including its IF amplifier.