3-stage 15 GHz p-HEMT power amplifier design for MMIC applications

This paper present the design of 3-stage 15 GHz power amplifier (PA) using 0.15 μm GaAs p-HEMT technology. At operating frequency of 15 GHz (Ku-band), each single PA stage was designed for optimum power and efficiency of the transistor, with 50 Ω input and output impedance matching. In this design, the active devices were selected from the depletion p-HEMT type with voltage supply of 4.5 V and DC bias of -0.2 V. The PA delivers maximum linear output power of 22.29 dBm while achieving maximum power-added-efficiency (PAE) of 31.21 %. The PA has an input and output return loss at 29.80 dB and 31.05 dB respectively. Having a current consumption of 155 mA, this PA achieves a small signal gain of 32.50 dB. The proposed PA is designed within a die size of about 3.0 × 1.0 mm² on GaAs substrate.