A 4-W X-band compact coplanar high-power amplifier MMIC with 18-dB gain and 25% PAE

Author

Bessemoulin, Alexandre ; Quay, Rüdiger ; Ramberger, Suitbert ; Massler, Hermann ; Schlechtweg, Michael

Author_Institution

United Monolithic Semicond., Orsay, France

Volume

38

Issue

9

fYear

2003

Firstpage

1433

Lastpage

1437

Abstract

The performance of a compact coplanar microwave monolithic integrated circuit (MMIC) amplifier with high output power in the X-band is presented. Based on our 0.3-μm gate-length GaAs power pseudomorphic high electron mobility transistor (PHEMT) process on 4-in wafer, this two-stage amplifier, having a chip size of 16 mm², averages 4-W continuous-wave (CW) and 25% mean power-added efficiency (PAE) in the X-band, with more than 18-dB linear gain. Peak output powers of P_-1dB=36.3dBm (4.3 W) and P_sat of 36.9 dBm (4.9 W) at 10 GHz with a PAE of 50% were also measured. Compared to previously reported X-band coplanar high-power amplifiers, this represents a chip size reduction of 20%, comparable to the size of compact state-of-the-art microstrip power amplifiers.

Keywords

HEMT integrated circuits; MMIC power amplifiers; field effect MMIC; 0.3 micron; 10 GHz; 18 dB; 25 percent; 4 W; PAE; PHEMT; X-band; chip size; coplanar high-power amplifier MMIC; output power; peak output powers; power-added efficiency; Electron mobility; Gallium arsenide; HEMTs; High power amplifiers; MMICs; Microwave amplifiers; Monolithic integrated circuits; PHEMTs; Power amplifiers; Power generation;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Solid-State Circuits, IEEE Journal of

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9200

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/JSSC.2003.815935

Filename

1225781