Design of high power S-band GaN MMIC power amplifiers for WiMAX applications (original) (raw)
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2.6- and 4-W E-Band GaN Power Amplifiers With a Peak Efficiency of 22% and 15.3%
IEEE Microwave and Wireless Technology Letters
In this letter, we report two high-power gallium nitride (GaN) power amplifiers (PAs) in the Satcom E-band (71-86 GHz) with an output power of 2.6 and 4 W, designed by incorporating an ultralow-loss ON-chip integrated power combiner. The first one is a three-stage four-way combining (unit) PA, and the second one is an eight-way combining balanced PA. The unit PA produces a saturated output power (P SAT) of 34.2 dBm (2.6 W), a peak power-added-efficiency (PAE) of 22%, and an associated power gain of 16.2 dB at 74 GHz. This performance was partly made possible by the design and optimization of the low-loss integrated power combiner, which minimized the losses in the matching networks. In addition, the balanced PA produces a P SAT of 36 dBm (4 W), P 1 dB of 35.6 dBm (3.63 W), with an associated PAE of 15.3% at 80 GHz. To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the highest output power (4 W) and the highest PAE (22%) for a PA > 2.5 W reported in any of the III-V technologies at E-band. Index Terms-E-band, gallium nitride (GaN), high efficiency, high frequency, high output power, low-loss, mm-wave, monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC), ON-chip, power amplifier (PA), power combining, W-band.
This paper presents the progress of monolithic technology for microwave application, focusing on gallium nitride technology advances in the realization of integrated power amplifiers. Three design examples, developed for microwave backhaul radios, are shown. The first design is a 7 GHz Doherty developed with a research foundry, while the second and the third are a 7 GHz Doherty and a 7-15 GHz dual-band combined power amplifiers, both based on a commercial foundry process. The employed architectures, the main design steps and the pros and cons of using gallium nitride technology are highlighted. The measured performance demonstrates the potentialities of the employed technology, and the progress in the accuracy, reliability and performance of the process.
A Compact 70 Watt Power Amplifier MMIC Utilizing S-Band GaN on SiC HEMT Process
2012 IEEE Compound Semiconductor Integrated Circuit Symposium (CSICS), 2012
The design and measured performance of a compact power amplifier MMIC utilizing a 0.25μm S-band GaN HEMT process technology is presented. Measured in-fixture results for the two-stage amplifier at 35V drain bias showed a nominal small-signal gain of 30 dB, a minimum output power of 50 W and a minimum PAE of 45% in the 3.1-4.3 GHz band. A peak output power of 60W, PAE of 48.3% were measured at 3.3 GHz with 35V operation. At 40V operation, this MMIC is capable of greater than 70W output power. With a compact 4.1x3.1 mm 2 die area, an output power density of 5.6W/mm 2 P sat per die area for a single fully monolithic S-band HPA is demonstrated. In addition, the MMIC PA provides near constant efficiency over a wide range of bias voltages enabling desirable P sat control with modulation of drain voltage.
2010 Workshop on Integrated Nonlinear Microwave and Millimetre-Wave Circuits, INMMiC 2010 - Conference Proceedings, 2010
An MMIC GaN Doherty power amplifier is presented. This amplifier, optimized for C-band Microwave Radio links, is designed to reach the maximum efficiency at the output power back-off level where the data distribution function of the modulated input signal has its maximum. The design approach was carried out through a careful investigation of load pull measurements at the fundamental and second harmonic, in conjunction with an accurate active device model, thus leading to a robust design strategy. The designed PA shows, at 7 GHz, a maximum PAE of 35% at more than 7 dB of back-off from the maximum output power and the Doherty high efficiency region covers a 10 dB back-off range from saturation; the maximum output power is in excess of 37 dBm. The MMIC power amplifier has been fabricated at the GigaHertz Centre of Chalmers University, within a collaboration Politecnico di Torino-Ericsson Telecomunicazioni S.P.A.
A compact 16 watt X-band GaN-MMIC power amplifier
… Digest, 2006. IEEE …, 2006
GaN MMIC power amplifiers for X-Band applications are presented delivering more than 16 W of cw output power while being extremely small in chip size. With a single-device amplifier on a 1.8x2.2 mm 2 chip 7.8 W output power at 8 GHz are achieved with a maximum PAE of 44%. On a chip of 2.2x3.3 mm 2 size only, a two-stage amplifier is realized with 18 dB of linear gain and 16 W cw output power at 8 GHz. PAE of the MMIC reaches 30%.
A 0.6–3.8 GHz GaN Power Amplifier Designed Through a Simple Strategy
IEEE Microwave and Wireless Components Letters, 2016
This letter presents the design strategy for an ultrawideband, high-efficiency hybrid power amplifier based on a commercial GaN-HEMT. The measurement results demonstrate a state-of-the-art fractional bandwidth of 145.5%, with saturated output power higher than 10 W from 0.6 to 3.8 GHz and power added efficiency exceeding 46% in the whole band, thus covering most of the mobile frequencies and making this device suitable for small-base station applications. The simple design approach exploits a N -section transformer, and allows for a priori estimation of the bandwidth: in the proposed case, a good agreement between estimated and measured bandwidth is obtained.
X band GaN Based MMIC Power Amplifier With 36.5dBm P 1-dB for Space Applications
An X-Band Monolithic Microwave Integrated Circuit (MMIC) High Power Amplifier (HPA) with coplanar waveguide (CPW) based on AlGaN/GaN on SiC technology is presented in this paper. Coplanar waveguide technology (CPW) is chosen for the simplicity and reduced cost of fabrication since CPW process has no via. High Electron Mobility Transistors (HEMTs) are matched for the 8 GHz-8.4GHz frequency band for maximum output power. The Amplifier has a small signal gain over 10 dB, output power of 36.5dBm at 1 dB gain compression point (P 1dB), 40% power added efficiency (PAE) at (P 1dB) in the desired frequency band (8 GHz-8.4 GHz) with V ds = 30V.
GaN HEMT power amplifier design for 2.45 GHz wireless applications
SAIEE Africa Research Journal
Electronic devices with high performances like Power Amplifiers (PA) are very important for Wireless communications. This paper proposes a design of a class AB power amplifier operating at 2.45 GHz, in the S-band frequency. The Cree's CG2H40045F GaN HEMT (High Electron Mobility Transistor) is used for this design. The Gallium Nitride (GaN) technology has been chosen in light of its advantageous properties such as high breakdown voltage, high band gap, as well as high thermal conditions. The paper investigates the different design trade-offs for finding a good balance between various key parameters of the PA (linearity, efficiency, and gain). A design approach has been proposed and the microstrip lines based on the Smith Chart tool available in ADS software have been used for the matching process. The class AB was selected to reach a good agreement between linearity and efficiency, provided by this class. After various process applications from DC characterization to simulations, the proposed design achieves a power added efficiency more than 50% at power saturation with a gain of 15 dB in schematic simulation. The layout dimensions are 55.5 x 64.45 mm 2 on PCB technology.