The optimum bias point for a drain mixer operating on low local oscillator (LO) power was investigated. The bias voltage dependence of the required LO power and the conversion gain in the drain mixer was clarified by a simplified nonlinear model which the drain current characteristics around knee voltage is approximated by two straight line segments. It was found that an optimum gate bias voltage Vgs exists for a given applied LO power, and the optimum gate bias voltage moves toward the pinch-off voltage as the injection LO power level decreases. In order to verify the variation of the optimum gate bias voltage, a 60 GHz MMIC drain mixer adopting the optimum gate bias voltage for low LO power level was fabricated. The fabricated drain mixer exhibited a conversion gain of 0 dB with the injection LO power level of 0 dBm. This value of 0 dBm is the best performance yet obtained for a 60 GHz MMIC drain mixer. The measured optimum gate bias voltage was near the pinch-off voltage. This result was in good agreement with the theoretical analysis. The LO power level of a drain mixer has been improved so that it is on a par with that of a gate mixer.

Recently, the Doherty amplifier technique has been the focus of attention not only for base stations but also for mobile terminals because of its high power-added efficiency in the large back-off region. In this paper, we present a miniaturized Doherty power amplifier (PA) module for W-CDMA mobile terminals. The developed Doherty PA module consists of a 4-mm-square ceramic substrate (4.0 mm4.0 mm1.5 mm, alumina, dielectric constant = 8.8), a 1-mm-square GaAs MMIC (1.0 mm1.0 mm0.1 mm), and 0603-size SMD passive components. To miniaturize the module size, the optimal designed quarter-wavelength transmission lines, which are used for impedance conversion for carrier amplifier output and phase compensation for peak amplifier input, are embedded in the ceramic module substrate. Two GaAs HBTs for a carrier amplifier and a peak amplifier and base bias circuits for each amplifier are integrated onto a single-chip GaAs MMIC. Measurement results at 1950 MHz in a W-CDMA uplink signal indicate that 27 dBm of the maximum output power, 45% of the power-added efficiency (PAE), 11 dB of power gain, and 43% of PAE at 6 dB back-off, i.e. 24 dBm output power, are obtained with the developed Doherty PA. In other words, the PAE is improved from the theoretical PAE of a conventional class B amplifier, namely, from 23% to 43%. This is the smallest Doherty amplifier developed in the form of a module for mobile terminals.

A low contact resistivity of 4.410-7 Ωcm2 for AlGaAs/GaAs HBTs was realized using Pt/Ti/Pt/Au base metal and a 81019 cm-3 highly-doped base. A high fmax of 170 GHz was achieved by reducing a base resistance. The formation of oxide-free interface between an AlGaAs graded base and Pt-based metal was demonstrated with Auger electron spectroscopy. The optimization of the growth condition conquered the rapid current-induced degradation in the highly Be-doped HBTs. An extremely wide bandwidth of 40 GHz was attained by a Darlington feeback amplifier fabricated using these high-fmax HBTs. These properties indicate that the application of AlGaAs/GaAs HBTs can be expected to extend to future ultrahigh-speed optical transmission systems.

This paper presents a miniaturized dual-mode Doherty PA module applicable for an HPSK signal and an OFDM 64-QAM signal. Dual-mode operation with identical hardware is realized by introducing a bias switching technique, which changes bias conditions of amplifiers according to transmission signals, and employing dual-mode matching circuits, which are designed based on the results of load-pull measurements using an HPSK signal and an OFDM 64-QAM signal. The Doherty PA module consists of a Doherty stage and a gain stage. Two GaAs-HBTs for a Doherty stage and one GaAs-HBT for a gain stage are integrated onto a 1 mm-square single GaAs-MMIC. In the HPSK mode, maximum output power of 26.7 dBm, power added efficiency (PAE) of 41%, and power gain of 27 dB are obtained in the condition that adjacent channel leakage power ratio (ACLR) is under -38 dBc. In the OFDM 64-QAM mode, maximum output power of 21.0 dBm, PAE of 27%, and power gain of 28 dB are obtained under EVM < 3.0%. This is the first multi-mode Doherty PA module suitable for multi peak to average power ratio (PAPR) signals.