This S-MMIC amplifier circuit has 15 dB of gain from 300-345 GHz, measured at JPL - one of the world's highest frequency amplifiers.

High Frequency Amplifiers. Physicists in this area collaborate with MMIC foundries in organizations outside JPL to design, fabricate, integrate, and test low-noise amplifiers and power amplifiers. Rapid progress has been made in developing useful amplifier modules at frequencies that now extend above 300 GHz. Advances are also being made in demonstrating reduced amplifier noise properties at these frequencies. These breakthrough results will enable new receiver concepts. Receivers at these frequencies with amplifiers at the front-end, rather than mixers, offer the potential of having better sensitivity and reduced fabrication time. They also enable polarimetric imagers with amplifier front-ends in the millimeter-waveIength region. Increases in amplifier power output at these frequencies facilitates the implementation of higher-frequency multiplier-based local oscillators for heterodyne receivers. These components will enable more robust flight millimeter-wave and submillimeter-wave spectrometers.