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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MICROWAVE THEORY AND TECHNIQUES, VOL. 57, NO.

9, SEPTEMBER 2009 2139

Group Delay Equalized UWB InGaP/GaAs


HBT MMIC Amplifier Using Negative
Group Delay Circuits
Kyoung-Pyo Ahn, Student Member, IEEE, Ryo Ishikawa, Member, IEEE, and Kazuhiko Honjo, Fellow, IEEE

Abstract—A negative group delay (NGD) circuit has been em-


ployed to equalize a group delay variation in a broadband ultra-
wideband (UWB) InGaP/GaAs heterojunction bipolar transistor
(HBT) monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC) amplifier.
Using the NGD circuit, a part of a salient group delay characteristic
in the operation band of broadband amplifiers can be suppressed
without an increase of the entire group delay. The MMIC amplifier
has a steep group delay increase in the lower frequency region of
the full-band UWB band (3.1–10.6 GHz) due to the sum of phase
variations near the cutoff frequencies of the HBTs. The NGD cir-
cuit has been inserted to reduce this increase of the group delay
in the UWB band. By adding a three-cell NGD circuit while con-
sidering input and output matching at the input side of the MMIC
amplifier, the group delay variation is decreased by 78%. However,
gain was also decreased by insertion of the multistage NGD circuit.
In an attempt to avoid this decrease in gain, a one-cell NGD circuit
was inserted into the feedback loop of the MMIC amplifier, and
as a result, we were able to decrease the group delay variation by
79%, with minimal gain deterioration.
Index Terms—Broadband amplifier, group delay, heterojunc- Fig. 1. Conceptual drawing of group delay equalization for a broadband feed-
tion bipolar transistor (HBT), negative group delay (NGD) circuit, back amplifier using an NGD circuit.
ultra-wideband (UWB).
Recently, negative group delay (NGD) circuits have opened
up prospects for potential applications [5]–[8]. One intuitive ap-
I. INTRODUCTION
plication of the NGD circuit is as a group delay compensator.
Compensation using NGD circuits for an InGaP/GaAs hetero-
LTRA-WIDEBAND (UWB) radio systems are the most junction bipolar transistor (HBT) was studied by the authors [9].
U promising candidates for short-range wireless personal
area networks [1] given their potential for offering a transmis-
The first goal of [9] was to find an optimum electrode struc-
ture—such as a single or double emitter—of HBTs to minimize
sion data rate much greater than several hundreds of megabits group delay variation. For the same collector current density,
per second with low microwave power radiations. Improving the group delay characteristics of the HBTs are different. However,
total performance of group delay characteristics for complicated for the same current driving capacity , their characteristics
RF modules is one of the major issues in UWB module designs, are almost the same. The study concluded that only the total area
along with satisfying their own specifications. Studies of group of emitter mesa—related to the base–emitter capacitance
delay characteristics in the designing of UWB modules were in the small-signal equivalent circuit of an HBT, irrespective of
mainly performed in the field of filters. A few papers have re- the electrode structures—affects the circuit characteristics (in-
ported on active circuits such as the UWB low-noise amplifier cluding group delay). The group delay variation can be com-
(LNA) [2]. Group delay compensation for a broadband ampli- pensated for by insertion of an NGD circuit. The group delay
fier using a composite right/left-handed (CRLH) circuit has also characteristic of the HBT has a steep increase at less than about
been reported [3], and a different approach has been proposed to 3 GHz due to a phase variation near the cutoff frequency in
compensate for dispersion in UWB applications using photonic the low-pass characteristic of the HBT. The low-pass charac-
phase filters [4]. teristic is mainly caused by base resistance and including
the Miller effect in the HBT.
To demonstrate the group delay compensation for an actual
Manuscript received December 23, 2008; revised June 03, 2009. First pub- active circuit, an NGD circuit was inserted into a UWB mono-
lished August 11, 2009; current version published September 04, 2009. lithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC) amplifier with an
The authors are with the Information and Communication Engineering De- active balun [10] constructed with the same InGaP/GaAs HBTs
partment, University of Electro-Communications, Chofu-shi 182-8585, Japan
(e-mail: ahn@ice.uec.ac.jp; ishikawa@ice.uec.ac.jp; honjo@ice.uec.ac.jp). in order to equalize the group delay characteristic in the full-
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TMTT.2009.2027082 band UWB band (3.1–10.6 GHz). Fig. 1 shows a conceptual
0018-9480/$26.00 © 2009 IEEE

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2140 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MICROWAVE THEORY AND TECHNIQUES, VOL. 57, NO. 9, SEPTEMBER 2009

Fig. 2. NGD Circuits applied in this paper.

drawing of group delay equalization for the UWB MMIC am-


plifier using the NGD circuit. This amplifier also has a steep
group delay increase in the low-frequency region of the UWB
band due to the sum of the group delay variations of the HBTs.
In addition, group delay variations in the low-frequency regions
of the UWB band can be seen in some other reports [11], [12].
Using the NGD circuit, the group delay increase can be sup-
pressed without a group delay increase at the middle- and high-
frequency regions of the UWB band. Insertion of this NGD cir-
cuit, however, causes a decrease in gain. The NGD circuit was
connected at the input port or before an HBT in the feedback
loop. For the design of the group delay equalized amplifier, the
amplifier circuit was first readjusted to reduce group delay varia-
tion at the middle and high frequency regions of the UWB band Fig. 3. S vector loci for each NGD circuit shown in Fig. 2. (a) S .
[2] and the effect of insertion loss of the NGD circuit. Three (b) S . (c) S .
types of NGD circuits were then used to compensate for the re-
maining group delay variation in the low-frequency region of
the UWB band.

II. BEHAVIOR OF NGD CIRCUITS


Fig. 2 shows NGD circuits taken up in this paper. Circuits
A and B were introduced in [13], and circuit C was proposed
by the authors [9]. NGD characteristics of these circuits can be
verified by using vector analysis. Impedance and admittance for (5)
each circuit are expressed as

(1) where

(2)

(3)

Using the impedance and admittance , forward transmis-


sion scattering parameters and for a two-port net-
work are derived as

In these equations, and are port impedance and port ad-


mittance, respectively. Transition of the phase shift and
for increasing the angular frequency is as follows:

(4) where

(6)

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AHN et al.: GROUP DELAY EQUALIZED UWB InGaP/GaAs HBT MMIC AMPLIFIER 2141

Fig. 4. Equivalent circuit of the developed group delay equalized InGaP/GaAs HBT MMIC amplifier with an active balun.

Vector loci of and in a polar coordinate are obtained the region where the vector rotates in a positive direction
to subtract the second terms of (4) and (5) from , as shown in expresses the NGD region. As shown in Fig. 3(c), the proposed
Fig. 3(a) and (b), respectively. NGD circuit can possess the NGD region from a low fre-
Similarly, using the NGD circuit is derived as (7), quency with a resistive loss.
shown at the bottom of this page, where
III. GROUP DELAY EQUALIZATION BY CONNECTING NGD
CIRCUIT AT INPUT PORT
A three-cell NGD circuit [6] was added at the input port of
the UWB MMIC amplifier [10] to equalize the group delay
characteristic of the amplifier. Fig. 4 shows an equivalent cir-
An angular frequency at the phase shift of , except for cuit of the UWB MMIC amplifier with the three-cell NGD cir-
, is similarly defined as as follows: cuit. The HBTs – have a single-emitter structure whose
emitter mesa area is 2 20 m . has GHz,
GHz, pF, pF, and mS
(8) at a bias of V and V. The ampli-
fier circuit has an active balun circuit, which is used to drive
Equation (8) is defined in the case of . In this case, a UWB self-complimentary antenna in differential mode [14].
the transition of the phase shift for increasing the angular Thus, the amplifier was evaluated as a single-ended input to a
frequency is as follows: differential-mode output system.
Fig. 5 shows simulated results of the gain characteristic
without the NGD circuit in which the value of a peaking
inductor was varied. The value of the peaking inductor
corresponds to the intrinsic part of an equivalent circuit of the
In the case of , the transition of the phase shift inductor in this simulation. The peaking inductor was inserted
for increasing the angular frequency is as follows: to compensate for the gain in the high-frequency region in the
UWB band. Generally, maximally flat gain and flat group delay
variation cannot be achieved at the same time. Consideration
of both gain flatness and flat group delay variation is required
for the UWB applications. When the gain characteristic is flat,
From (7), the vector loci of for the two cases are shown in the group delay characteristic has a convex characteristic in the
Fig. 3(c). Since the group delay is expressed as , high-frequency region due to the peaking inductor. When the

(7)

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2142 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MICROWAVE THEORY AND TECHNIQUES, VOL. 57, NO. 9, SEPTEMBER 2009

Fig. 5. Effects of L on the simulated gain and the group delay before com-
pensation using an NGD circuit. Fig. 6. Chip photograph: measured and simulated results of the three-cell NGD
circuit with small input and output return losses.

group delay characteristic is adjusted so that the convex charac-


teristic becomes flat, the gain decreases in the high-frequency
region. This method is expedient for connecting an NGD
circuit, which induces gain degradation in the low-frequency
region of the UWB band. As shown in Fig. 5, there is a peak
point at less than 2 GHz in the group delay characteristic due to
a resonance point by the inductance of the bias wiring line in
the MMIC and the bypass capacitance with the value of 20 pF.
Such a large capacitance was used in the MMIC to avoid the
resonance in the UWB band.
The three-cell NGD circuit was composed as a -type circuit
using two series circuits and one parallel circuit.
Using this circuit structure, the bandwidth of the negative group
delay can be expanded. In addition, the impedance-matching
condition can be adjusted. For the two-stage cascade connection
of two-port networks (denoted as A and B), total transmission
coefficient can be expressed using each -parameter as
follows:

(9)

If each reflection coefficient at the adjacent ports is enough


small , then

(10)

(11)

where denotes group delay. According to these equations,


Fig. 7. (a) Chip photograph of the group delay equalized MMIC using the
when the output impedance of the NGD circuit is matched to the three-cell NGD circuit. (b) Its measured and simulated results.
input of the UWB MMIC amplifier, i.e., 50 , the total group
delay can be expressed as the sum of each group delay. In this
case, the total gain can be expressed as the product of each gain. area, and a multistage configuration is required to increase the
To compensate for group delay variation, the NGD area of NGD area. Moreover, the matching condition is required.
value NGD bandwidth has to be comparable to the excessive Fig. 6 shows a photograph of a fabricated three-cell NGD
area that has to be reduced, such as the 3.1–5-GHz band shown MMIC along with the measured and simulated results. Fab-
in Fig. 5. However, one-cell NGD circuits have a confined NGD ricated MMICs shown in this paper were fabricated by the

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AHN et al.: GROUP DELAY EQUALIZED UWB InGaP/GaAs HBT MMIC AMPLIFIER 2143

Fig. 8. Equivalent circuit of the developed group delay equalized MMIC with the one-cell NGD circuits inserted into the feedback loop.

foundry service Win Semiconductor Company, Tao Yuan Consequently, the group delay equalization method based on
Shien, Taiwan. The parameter values were adjusted so that the the cascade connection using the NGD circuit is simple because
group delay characteristic of the UWB MMIC amplifier was the total group delay is expressed as the sum of each group
equalized. For the simulation, the MMIC substrate specification delay. However, impedance matching has to be adjusted as well
and circuit models including parasitic elements were supplied as group delay in the NGD circuit. In addition, large gain degra-
by the foundry service company. As shown in Fig. 6, the NGD dation occurs due to the multistage structure of the NGD circuit.
characteristic was confirmed at 1.5–5 GHz. In addition, input Though the higher band gain is intentionally lowered, the inser-
and output return losses were more than 15 dB. However, about tion loss still disturbs gain flatness of the equalized MMIC am-
a 5-dB insertion loss was also observed in a region of the gain plifier. Therefore, the NGD compensator have to be redesigned
band of the UWB MMIC amplifier. From (10), this insertion so that the total gain characteristic of the equalized MMIC am-
loss will distort the gain flatness of the UWB MMIC amplifier plifier becomes flat in the gain band.
including the NGD circuit. Therefore, the amplifier circuit have
to be designed so that the total gain characteristic becomes flat
in the UWB band. IV. GROUP DELAY EQUALIZATION BY CONNECTING
Fig. 7 shows a photograph of a fabricated group delay equal- NGD CIRCUIT INTO FEEDBACK LOOP
ized InGaP/GaAs MMIC amplifier along with the measured and
simulated results. Considering practical linewidth and resultant In order to avoid the large gain degradation by increasing the
chip area, the characteristic impedance of the lines in this paper stage of the NGD circuit, a one-cell NGD circuit was integrated
is about 70 in our InGaP/GaAs MMIC layer . It into the UWB MMIC amplifier [10]. However, the amplifier
was reported that the sinusoidal group delay variation is caused has a relatively large and wideband group delay variation that
by the transmission line impedance mismatch [15]. However the cannot be compensated for by the one-cell NGD circuit when
group delay variation caused by the mismatch is negligible be- the one-cell NGD circuit is connected at the input port of the
cause the line lengths are not so long. The MMIC was mea- amplifier under the 50- condition. Hence, the one-cell NGD
sured as a three-port system using an Agilent PNA-X series circuit was inserted into the feedback loop where the impedance
four-port network analyzer. The output was transformed from for the one-cell NGD circuit is not 50 and has reactance. Since
two 50- single-ended ports to one 100- differential port using all measured results were in agreement with the simulated re-
the measured three-port -parameter. In the measurement, each sults, as shown in Fig. 7(b), the appropriate insertion point in
port was directly contacted by using 150- m pitch air-coplanar the feedback loop was determined by the simulation.
ground–signal–ground (G–S–G) probes. For the bias lines on Fig. 8 shows an equivalent circuit of the UWB MMIC ampli-
the MMIC, external bypass chip capacitors with the capacitance fier with two types of one-cell NGD circuits. The one-cell NGD
of 390 pF were connected through bonding wires. circuit was inserted before the first transistor as prescribed
As shown in Fig. 7(b), the group delay characteristic was by the simulation results. The circuit parameters of the amplifier
equalized from 3.1 to 5 GHz using the NGD circuit. As a re- were the same as those for the amplifier circuit shown in Fig. 4.
sult, the measured group delay variation in the UWB band was The one-cell NGD circuit (b) in Fig. 8 is the proposed NGD
reduced from 38.5 to 8.6 ps. At the same time, however, about circuit in which the transmission is suppressed in the low-fre-
a 5-dB gain degradation occurred from 3 to 4 GHz and about quency region by a series circuit. Fig. 9 shows photographs
a 3.2-dB gain degradation occurred on average in the UWB of fabricated one-cell NGD MMICs circuits in Fig. 8 along with
band. The differences between the simulated and measured re- the measured and simulated results. Both NGD circuits show
sults were mainly caused by the deviations between the model similar group delay performance and lower loss characteristics
parameters and fabricated components. than the three-cell NGD circuit. The one-cell NGD circuit (b)

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2144 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MICROWAVE THEORY AND TECHNIQUES, VOL. 57, NO. 9, SEPTEMBER 2009

Fig. 9. (a) and (b) Fabricated NGD circuit. (c) Their measured and simulated
results.

in Fig. 8 retains about 2.5-dB insertion loss below about 3 GHz,


as described in Section II.
The one-cell compensation technique takes advantage of in-
ternal capacitance of existing in the circuit. The group delay
of an HBT is mainly characterized as an input part of the small-
signal equivalent circuit for an HBT. The input part is simplified
as a low-pass network that consists of a base resistance and
, by applying the Miller effect, and is expressed as
Fig. 10. (a) and (b) Schematics of the one-cell NGD circuit (a) in Fig. 8 with
(12) C and R , respectively. (c) Analytical results of the two cases with C =
2 25
: pF and R = 50

. (d) Impact of A on the group delay in the case of


where is a load impedance, and of is 2.25 pF.
C = 2 25
: pF.
Fig. 10(a) and (b) shows two schematics of the one-cell NGD
circuit [see (a) in Fig. 8] with and , respectively. and
numerator from that of the denominator. Therefore, the selec-
base–emitter conductance are omitted to simplify the anal-
tion of , , and controls the NGD characteristic at the given
ysis. The voltage transfer function of the former is expressed as
condition of , and -parameter simulations are required in
practical designs.
The feedback desensitizes the group delay variation of the
NGD circuit with . Generally, feedback gain is given
by
(13)
(14)
where . The analytical results of the two cases are com-
pared in Fig. 10(c) with pF and , and where is the gain of the amplifier, and feed-
the component values in Fig. 8. Compared with the 50- case, back factor is assumed to be constant. As the lower band gain
the NGD area is expanded with the help of . The total group is mainly determined by and the operating band of the NGD
delay of (13) is obtained by subtracting the group delay of the circuit is the lower band, (13) is substituted for in (14) to

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AHN et al.: GROUP DELAY EQUALIZED UWB InGaP/GaAs HBT MMIC AMPLIFIER 2145

Fig. 11. (a) Fabricated group delay equalized MMIC amplifier using the NGD Fig. 12. (a) Fabricated group delay equalized MMIC amplifier using the NGD
circuit (a) shown in Fig. 8. (b) and (c) Its measured and simulated results. circuit (b) shown in Fig. 8. (b) and (c) Its measured and simulated results.

analyze the impact of on the NGD characteristic. The an- shown in Fig. 8 along with the measured and simulated re-
alytical results in Fig. 10(d) show that the NGD area decreases sults. The NGD circuit was inserted so that the length of the
as increases. wiring line in the feedback loop was unchanged. In Fig. 11(b),
Fig. 11 shows a photograph of a fabricated group delay equal- the group delay characteristic was equalized from 3.1 to 5 GHz
ized InGaP/GaAs MMIC amplifier using the NGD circuit (a) using the one-cell NGD circuit whose parameters were adjusted

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2146 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MICROWAVE THEORY AND TECHNIQUES, VOL. 57, NO. 9, SEPTEMBER 2009

TABLE I gain was also decreased by about 3.2 dB. In another approach,
MEASURED GROUP DELAY AND GAIN IN FULL-BAND UWB BAND a one-cell NGD circuit was inserted into the feedback loop of
(3.1–10.6 GHz); MERITS AND DEMERITS OF THE
TWO COMPENSATION TECHNIQUES the MMIC amplifier. Two types of one-cell NGD circuits were
tested. For the reported NGD circuit, the group delay variation
decreased to 9.1 ps in the UWB band with a reduced gain de-
terioration of 1.0 dB. However, a redundant gain peak was ob-
served at 2 GHz. For the proposed NGD circuit, the group delay
variation decreased to 7.9 ps in the UWB band with low gain de-
terioration and effective gain suppression at less than 3.1 GHz.

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ation in the broadband UWB InGaP/GaAs HBT MMIC ampli-
fier. The MMIC amplifier has a steep group delay increase in the Kyoung-Pyo Ahn (S’06) received the B.E. and the
lower frequency region of the full-band UWB band (3.1–10.6 M.E. degrees in radio sciences and engineering from
Chungnam National University, Daejeon, Korea, in
GHz) due to the sum of phase variations near the cutoff fre- 2003 and 2005, respectively, and is currently working
quencies of the HBTs. The NGD circuit was inserted to reduce toward the D.E. degree in information and commu-
this increase of the group delay in the UWB band. By adding nication engineering from the University of Electro-
Communications, Tokyo, Japan.
a three-cell NGD circuit while considering input and output His research interests focus on the development
matching at the input side of the MMIC amplifier, the group of MMIC amplifiers, filters, and antennas for UWB
delay variation was decreased from 38.5 to 8.6 ps. However, the applications.

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AHN et al.: GROUP DELAY EQUALIZED UWB InGaP/GaAs HBT MMIC AMPLIFIER 2147

Ryo Ishikawa (M’07) received the B.E., M.E., and Kazuhiko Honjo (M’82–SM’88–F’97) received the
D.E. degrees in electronic engineering from Tohoku B.E. degree from the University of Electro-Com-
University, Sendai, Japan, in 1996, 1998, and 2001, munications, Tokyo, Japan, in 1974, and the M.E.
respectively. and D.E. degrees in electronic engineering from
In 2001, he joined the Research Institute of the Tokyo Institute of Technology, Tokyo, Japan, in
Electrical Communication, Tohoku University, 1976 and 1983, respectively.
Sendai, Japan. In 2003, he joined the University From 1976 to 2001, he was with the NEC
of Electro-Communications, Tokyo, Japan. His Corporation, Kawasaki, Japan. In 2001, he joined
research interest is the development of microwave the University of Electro-Communications, as a
compound semiconductor devices and related Professor with the Information and Communication
techniques. Engineering Department. He has been involved
Dr. Ishikawa is a member of the Institute of Electrical, Information and Com- in research and development of high-power/ broadband/low-distortion mi-
munication Engineers (IEICE), Japan, and the Japan Society of Applied Physics. crowave amplifiers, MMICs, HBT device and processing technology, miniature
He was the recipient of the 1999 Young Scientist Award for the Presentation of broadband microwave antennas and FDTD electromagnetic wave and device
an Excellent Paper of the Tohoku Chapter, Japan Society of Applied Physics. co-analysis.
Prof. Honjo is a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical, Information and Commu-
nication Engineers (IEICE), Japan. He was the recipient of the 1983 Microwave
Prize and the 1988 Microwave Prize presented by the IEEE Microwave Theory
and Techniques Society (IEEE MTT-S). He was also the recipient of the 1980
Young Engineer Award and the 1999 Electronics Award presented by the IEICE.

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