Abstract

An eight stage distributed amplifier with 12.5 dB ± 0.45 dB gain and 50 GHz bandwidth has been demonstrated in a commercially available 0.1 µm metamorphic GaAs HEMT (MHEMT) technology. The amplifier has a minimum noise figure lower than 2.5 dB in the bandwidth. The group delay variation from 9 to 40 GHz is ± 7.5 ps and circuit consumption is 0.4 W. Such amplifier has been packaged with a high responsivity photodiode into a fiber pig-tailed module. Eye diagrams measurements demonstrate the successful high-speed operation of the photoreceiver. Index Terms — distributed amplifiers, metamorphic HEMT, MMICs, photoreceiver, fiber optic communication, microstrip circuits.