High power, high efficiency, AlGaN/GaN HEMT technology for wireless base station applications

We report AlGaN/GaN high-electron-mobility-transistors (HEMT) on SiC substrates with field modulation plates (FP) of various dimensions and different gate widths. As a measure of the status of GaN technology achieved in this work, small periphery 150 μm HEMT demonstrated a continuous wave (CW) output power density of 22.7 W/mm at 2.14 GHz with power added efficiency (PAE) of 54% when biased at a drain-source voltage (V_DS) of 80 V. As a demonstration of the scalability of this technology, a 20-mm-wide device exhibited 100 W CW output power and a simultaneous peak PAE of 55.3% at 2.14 GHz when biased at class AB and V_DS=48V. WCDMA measurements on the 20mm part demonstrated ACP of -35 dBc at 42.5 dBm output power and 30% PAE under the same bias condition. Analysis of FP related performance tradeoffs are also presented in this work.