DC-coupled multi-stage amplifier using all-pass resistive/capacitive network for level shifting

摘要

A resistive level-shifting biasing network is used with a capacitor in parallel to couple FET-based amplifier stages from DC to several GHz in a multi-stage amplifier. The output of the first amplifier stage is connected to the input of the second amplifier stage without a blocking capacitor or level-shifting diodes, allowing a portion of the drain current for the first amplifier stage to be supplied from the second amplifier stage. In a particular embodiment, a distributed amplifier achieved over 20 dB gain from DC to about 80 GHz using three traveling wave amplifier chips.