An approach to ultra-broadband medium-power MMIC cascode-pair distributed amplifier design

This paper presents a cascode-pair distributed amplifier design approach using 0.25 μm GaAs-based PHEMT MMIC technology, which covers 2-32 GHz. Electromagnetic simulation results show that this amplifier achieves 18 dB gain from 2 to 32 GHz and ±0.5 dB gain flatness over the band. The reflected coefficients at the input and output ports are below -10 dB up to 27 GHz. The output power at 1 dB compression is greater than 24 dBm at 20 GHz. An appropriate feedback resistance can be utilized to improve P₁ dB for about 6 dBm. The DOE (design of experiment) approach is carried out by a simulation tool for better performance and tolerance of the devices is also analyzed. The circuit configuration is capable of operating over ultra-broad band amplification.