Solid-state RF power amplifiers : status and perspective

Solid-state power electronics has been developed for the last 50 years. Germanium, silicon, gallium arsenide, indium phosphide and their related compounds are, or have been, studied over this period. Wide band gap semiconductors are now new players in this field. This paper tries to give an overview of this strategic field, especially focused on the compound devices. Wide band gap devices are very suitable for extremely high power amplifier applications and GaAs-like components could not compete for the highly demanding applications, but classical III-V devices will still occupy the market field requiring low to medium power level and high power efficiencies.