A Beyond 110 GHz GaN Cascode Low-Noise Amplifier with 20.3 dBm Output Power

In this paper, we report on the first mm-wave GaN-based low-noise amplifier using a cascode configuration. This MMIC has a small-signal gain well above 30 dB and a noise figure in the range of 7.6 dB at 104 GHz. Moreover, the use of gallium nitride technology allows for achieving state-of-the-art saturated output power, up to 20.3 dBm or 1.3 W/mm at 115 GHz. To our knowledge, the measured gain, noise figure, and output power levels are the best among any of the GaN MMICs beyond 110 GHz reported to date.