A Ka-band low power consumption MMIC core chip for T/R modules

This paper presents a Ka-band low power consumption MMIC core chip using commercial 0.15 μm D-mode GaAs pHEMT technology for T/R modules. The core chip consists of two linear gain amplifiers, a SPDT switch, a 5-bit attenuator and a 5-bit phase shifter with a size of 4.8 mm × 2.5 mm. In the receiving mode, the 32-38 GHz core chip results in a gain of 9.0 dB and an output P1dB of -3 dBm. In the transmitting mode, the gain and output P1dB are 11.5 dB and +0 dBm, respectively. The measured rms attenuation error and phase error are 0.7 dB and 3.8°. The power consumption is 150 mW in both work modes. The measured results show that the operating bandwidth, power consumption, gain, rms attenuation error and phase error have been significantly improved compared with the previous reports.