A Wideband High-Efficiency GaN MMIC Power Amplifier for Sub-6-GHz Applications

Abstract

The monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC) power amplifiers serve an essential and critical role in RF transmit/receive (T/R) modules of phased array radar systems, mobile communication systems and satellite systems. Over recent years, there has been an increasing requirement to develop wideband high-efficiency MMIC high power amplifiers (HPAs) to accommodate wideband operation and reduce power consumption. This paper presents a wideband high efficiency MMIC HPA for Sub-6-GHz applications using a 0.25-μm gate-length D-mode GaN/SiC high electron mobility transistor (HEMT) process. The amplifier consists of two stages with two HEMT cells for the driver stage and eight HEMT cells for the power stage. To obtain a flat gain while maintaining the wideband characteristic, a gain equalization technique is employed in the inter-stage matching circuit. Meanwhile, a low-loss output matching network is utilized to ensure high efficiency. The fabricated HPA occupies a compact chip area of 14.35 mm2 including testing pads. Over the frequency range of 2–6 GHz, measured results of this HPA show a saturated continuous wave (CW) output power of 44.4–45.2 dBm, a power added efficiency (PAE) of 35.8–51.3%, a small signal gain of 24–25.5 dB, and maximum input and output return losses of 14.5 and 10 dB, respectively.