High power K-band GaN on SiC CPW monolithic power amplifier

Abstract

This paper presents a high power amplifier at K-band (20.2-21.2 GHz). The AlGaN/GaN CPW MMIC amplifier is realized with 0.25 μm HEMT process on 2-inch semi-insulating SiC substrate. The amplifier has a small signal gain over 20 dB for Vds=15V and measured output power of over 31 dBm at 20.2 Ghz. PAE of the amplifier is around 22% for desired frequency band. Initial radiation hardness tests indicate a suitable stability of the technology in space. © 2014 European Microwave Association

X Band GaN Based MMIC Power Amplifier with 36.5dBm P<inf>1-dB</inf> for Space Applications

“…After stabilization, drain biasing circuit was designed by using series high impedance CPW inductor which is equal to λ/4 length for 8GHz and shunt large Metal-Insulator-Metal (MIM) capacitor to isolate DC from RF signal. Gate biasing circuit consists of a large series resistor instead of CPW inductor which is different than drain biasing circuit, because large series resistor has benefits on gain flatness and stability of circuit which were already reported in [4]. zL = 0,26 + j*0,32 After implementing stabilization and bias circuits, input and output matching circuit networks were designed.…”

Distortion mitigation for 100 and 250 MHz discrete supply modulation of a three-stage K-band MMIC PA

“…The unit-cell size of a phased array decreases linearly with free-space wavelength, while circuit size decreases slower and for highpower densities GaN MMICs are a possible solution. Published examples of GaN PAs at K-band exist in both commercial [1,2] and research processes [3][4][5][6][7]. Doherty amplifiers [8,9] and a single-ended linear amplifier [3] have also been designed in GaN at K-band to address back-off efficiency and linearity, respectively.…”