A design of a wideband balanced limited low noise amplifier

Based on the GaAs PIN (positive intrinsic negative) diode and HEMT (high electron mobility transistor) technology, a 5~20GHz wideband balanced limited LNA (low noise amplifier) chip was presented. The chip has the characteristics of wideband, low noise, high gain and high power capacitance. The chip includes a 3dB coupler, limiter and LNA. The test results of the chip show that in the frequency range of 6GHz to 20GHz, the small signal gain of the chip is higher than 26dB, noise figure is less than 2.8 dB, and the typical value is 2dB, both the input and output VSWR (voltage standing wave ratio) are better than 1.3:1, and the output power is more than 6dBm at 1dB compression. The static current is 30mA when the LNA is supplied with 5V. And the power capability is 15W (13GHz, input pulse power: pulse width 400us, duty cycle 30%).