Transistor vector load-pull characterization for millimeter-wave power amplifier design

The manuscript presents a load-pull characterization technique for the design of power amplifiers in the millimeter-wave frequency band. The proposed approach is based on a recently proposed characterization technique which, by exploiting direct low-frequency nonlinear electron device measurements in conjunction with a model-based description of the device strictly dynamic nonlinearities, achieves a similar level of accuracy provided by expensive nonlinear measurement setups operating at microwave frequencies. The proposed characterization technique, validated by means of measurements carried out at 20 GHz on a 0.15-μm GaAs pHEMT device, has been exploited for the first time in order to draw load-pull contours up to 60 GHz.