A Wideband 2.18-13.51 GHz Ultra-Low Additive Phase Noise Power Amplifier in InP 250nm HBT

A 250 nm InP heterojunction bipolar transistor (HBT) power amplifier (PA) featuring low additive phase noise over a wide range of frequencies is demonstrated. The PA consists of parallel unit cells power combined to obtain low phase noise by taking advantage of InP HBT low near-DC noise. Design techniques are explored to enhance the gain and deliverable output power while keeping the additive phase noise low. The measurements of the proposed PA illustrate -150.0 dBc/Hz additive phase noise at 10 kHz offset from a 10 GHz carrier while drawing 54.4 mA DC current from a 3.1 V collector supply in the compression point; moreover, PA delivers a maximum of 18.1 dBm saturation output power and a peak gain of 16.7 dB at 10 GHz frequency. The presented results demonstrate the excellent capabilities of InP-HBT for high-power and low-phase noise applications.