A V-Band Monolithic AlGaN/GaN VCO

A V-band push-push GaN monolithic microwave integrated circuit voltage controlled oscillator (VCO) has been realized based on a 0.2 mum T-gate AlGaN/GaN high electron mobility transistor technology with an fT ~ 65 GHz. The GaN VCO delivered an output power of +11 dBm at 53 GHz with an estimated phase noise of -97 dBc/Hz at 1 MHz offset based on on-wafer measurement. To the best of our knowledge, this is the highest frequency VCO ever reported for GaN technology with a high output power at V-band, without using any buffer amplifier. This work demonstrates the potential of applying GaN technology to millimeter wave band, high power, and low phase noise frequency sources applications.