C-band GaAs FET power amplifiers with 70-W output power and 50% PAE for satellite communication use

This paper describes a successfully developed C-band GaAs FET amplifier for satellite communication systems. In designing the amplifier, the unit FET configuration was optimized and harmonic impedances were taken into account in the input and output matching circuits for obtaining both high-gain and high-efficiency characteristics. At 3.8 GHz, the internally matched FET amplifier, consisting of four 35-mm-gate-width chips, exhibited a saturated output power of 48.5 dBm and a maximum power-added efficiency of 50% with a linear gain of 12.1 dB under 10 V operation. To our knowledge 70-W output power is the record output power among single-end power amplifiers in C-band. A low 3rd order intermodulation distortion of -36dBc was also obtained at a drain voltage of 9 V. These results indicate that the developed GaAs FET power amplifier is promising as a high-power high-efficiency amplifier for satellite communication use.