| A procedure for designing an ultra-broadband distributed amplifier is established. The amplifier operates on the principle of using the input and output capacitances of transistors, together with inductive elements to form the shunt and series elements of artificial low-pass transmission lines, respectively. These transmission lines are coupled with the transconductances of the field-effect transistors (FETs) and offer unprecedented broad-bandwidth capabilities in several ways.;A 1-12-GHz distributed amplifier based on GaAs monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC) technology is designed, fabricated, and measured to verify and validate the design procedure. The performance is achieved by incorporating the principle of forward-feed. Experimental and simulated results are found to be in very good agreement.;Computer-aided-design (CAD) techniques are used. These aid the design of the 'artificial' gate and drain transmission lines. The SUPER-COMPACT and MAC-SYMA programs are found to be invaluable tools in the analysis and optimization of the distributed amplifier. |
