X-band MMICs for a Low-Cost Radar Transmit/Receive Module in 250 nm GaN HEMT Technology

This paper describes Monolithic Microwave Integrated Circuits (MMICs) for an X-band radar transceiver front-end implemented in 0.25 μm GaN High Electron Mobility Transistor (HEMT) technology. Two versions of single pole double throw (SPDT) T/R switches are introduced to realize a fully GaN-based transmit/receive module (TRM), each of which achieves an insertion loss of 1.21 dB and 0.66 dB at 9 GHz, IP_1dB higher than 46.3 dBm and 44.7 dBm, respectively. Therefore, it can substitute a lossy circulator and limiter used for a conventional GaAs receiver. A driving amplifier (DA), a high-power amplifier (HPA), and a robust low-noise amplifier (LNA) are also designed and verified for a low-cost X-band transmit-receive module (TRM). For the transmitting path, the implemented DA achieves a saturated output power (P_sat) of 38.0 dBm and output 1-dB compression (OP_1dB) of 25.84 dBm. The HPA reaches a P_sat of 43.0 dBm and power-added efficiency (PAE) of 35.6%. For the receiving path, the fabricated LNA measures a small-signal gain of 34.9 dB and a noise figure of 2.56 dB, and it can endure higher than 38 dBm input power in the measurement. The presented GaN MMICs can be useful in implementing a cost-effective TRM for Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) radar systems at X-band.