Wideband, High-Efficiency GaN Power Amplifiers Utilizing a Non-Uniform Distributed Topology

Author

Gassmann, J. ; Watson, P. ; Kehias, L. ; Henry, G.

Author_Institution

Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Dayton

fYear

2007

fDate

3-8 June 2007

Firstpage

615

Lastpage

618

Abstract

A highly efficient, wideband power amplifier designed in GaN technology and utilizing a non-uniform distributed topology is reported in this paper. Measured results of an NGES fabricated NDPA demonstrate very high efficiency across the multi-octave bandwidth. Average CW output power and PAE across 2-15 GHz was 5.5 W and 25%, respectively. Maximum output power reached 6.9 W with 32% PAE at 7 GHz. A follow-on effort utilizing NGST´s mmW foundry process was initiated in an attempt to achieve even higher efficiencies while compacting the size of the chip.

Keywords

MMIC power amplifiers; distributed amplifiers; gallium compounds; wide band gap semiconductors; wideband amplifiers; GaN; MMIC power amplifiers; foundry process; frequency 2 GHz to 15 GHz; nonuniform distributed topology; power 5.5 W; power 6.9 W; power added efficiency; wideband amplifiers; Broadband amplifiers; Distributed amplifiers; Gallium nitride; High power amplifiers; MMICs; Phased arrays; Power amplifiers; Power generation; Silicon carbide; Topology; Broadband Amplifiers; Distributed Amplifiers; MMICs; Phased Arrays; Power Amplifiers;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Microwave Symposium, 2007. IEEE/MTT-S International

Conference_Location

Honolulu, HI

ISSN

0149-645X

Print_ISBN

1-4244-0688-9

Electronic_ISBN

0149-645X

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/MWSYM.2007.379976

Filename

4263891