Submillimeter-Wave InP MMIC Amplifiers From 300–345 GHz

In this letter, we describe the design, fabrication, simulation, and measured performance of a single-stage and three-stage 320 GHz amplifier using Northrop Grumman Corporation's (NGC) 35-nm InP high electron mobility transistor submillimeter-wave monolithic integrated circuit (S-MMIC) process. On-wafer S-parameter measurements using an extended waveguide band WR3 vector network analyzer system were performed from 210-345 GHz. We measured 5 dB of gain for the single-stage amplifier at 340 GHz and 13-15 of gain from 300-345 GHz for the three-stage S-MMIC amplifier.