A microwave high-power GaN transistor with highly-integrated active digital switch-mode driver circuit

Author

Maroldt, S. ; Bruckner, P. ; Quay, Ruediger ; Ambacher, Oliver

Author_Institution

IAF, Fraunhofer Inst. for Appl. Solid-State Phys., Freiburg, Germany

fYear

2014

fDate

1-6 June 2014

Firstpage

1

Lastpage

4

Abstract

An inverter-based digital switch-mode driver circuit, highly-integrated with a GaN power transistor is presented. The layout is fully scalable in output power and therefore suitable for amplifiers with power levels of higher than 10 W. The circuit enables a switch-mode operation from DC to 3 GHz. A consistent analysis of digital switching measurements and active harmonic load-pull results is performed. Measurements at 2 GHz and 30 V yield a drain efficiency of 82 % and 6 W of output power, while a gain up to 35 dB and more than 76 % overall circuit efficiency were achieved.

Keywords

III-V semiconductors; UHF power amplifiers; driver circuits; gallium compounds; invertors; microwave power transistors; switched mode power supplies; wide band gap semiconductors; GaN; GaN power transistor; active harmonic load-pull results; digital switching measurements; frequency 2 GHz; integrated active digital switch-mode driver circuit; inverter-based digital switch-mode driver circuit; microwave high-power GaN transistor; power amplifiers; switch-mode operation; voltage 30 V; Gallium nitride; Indexes; Switches; Transistors; GaN; HEMT; MMIC; digital; driver circuit; inverter; switch mode power amplifier;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Microwave Symposium (IMS), 2014 IEEE MTT-S International

Conference_Location

Tampa, FL

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/MWSYM.2014.6848393

Filename

6848393