Development of ultra wideband, high efficiency, distributed power amplifiers using discrete GaN HEMTs (original) (raw)
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IEICE Electronics Express
An ultra-wideband power amplifier (PA) design employing Real Frequency Technique (RFT) with Gallium Nitride high-electron-mobilitytransistor (GaN HEMT) technology is presented. The practical implementation was done with combination of distributed and lumped elements (mixed lumped elements combination) for the need of industrial requirements for the small form factor and low cost. This is an attractive approach for Software Defined Radio (SDR) products to meet wide bandwidth range of 80-2200 MHz. The measured results of the prototype reported good performance over the bandwidth of the interest (i.e. power of 34 dBm to 43 dBm, efficiency about 39% to 69% and gain in the range of 11 dB to 18 dB), and reasonable agreement with the simulated data. According to author's knowledge, these results are significant for single-ended GaN HEMT device for the wideband operation starting from low frequency 80-2200 MHz.
2015
– A specific design of a GaN HEMT cascode cell dedi-cated to flip-chip distributed power amplifiers is presented in this paper. The active device used in the design is a 8x50μm Al-GaN/GaN HEMT grown on SiC substrate. The GaN-based die which integrates the active cascode cell and its passive matching elements is flip-chipped onto an AlN substrate via electrical and mechanical bumps. The matching elements of the cascode cell are composed of series capacitors on the gate of both transistors with additional resistors to insure stability and bias path. The se-ries capacitor on the gate of the 1st transistor is added to enable the power optimization of wideband distributed amplifiers up to their maximum frequency while the series capacitor on the gate of the 2nd transistor is dedicated to the intrinsic power balance of the cascode cell. Index Terms – Gallium nitride, HEMTs, Balanced cascode cell, Distributed amplifier, Power amplifier, Flip-chip.
Design of multi-octave band GaN-HEMT power amplifier
2012 IEEE International Conference on Electron Devices and Solid State Circuit (EDSSC), 2012
This paper describes design, fabrication and measurement of 6 GHz-18 GHz monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC) amplifier. The amplifier is realized as coplanar waveguide (CPW) circuit using 0.3 /.lm-gate Gallium Nitride (GaN) HEMT technology. The amplifier has a small signal gain of 7 ± 0.75 dB. The output power at 3dB compression is better than 24 dBm with 16%-19% drain efficiency for the whole 6 GHz-18 GHz frequency band under continuous wave (CW)power.
Decade bandwidth high efficiency GaN HEMT power amplifier designed with resistive harmonic loading
2012 IEEE/MTT-S International Microwave Symposium Digest, 2012
The use of resistive loading at higher harmonics in wideband power amplifier design is proposed. Although the theoretical efficiency of such operation is lower than other classes the significantly simplified load network design potentially allows for multi-octave realizations. A decade bandwidth (0.4-4.1 GHz) GaN HEMT power amplifier was thereby designed, delivering more than 40 dBm output power with 10-15 dB gain and 40-62% drain efficiency. Linearized modulated signal amplification was then successfully demonstrated at multiple frequencies (0.9 to 3.5 GHz), using various downlink signals (LTE, WCDMA, WiMAX), with resulting ACLR lower than-46 dBc.
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.
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.
A High-Efficiency Ultra-Broadband Mixed-Mode GaN HEMT Power Amplifier
IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems II: Express Briefs, 2018
In this brief, a new technique of efficiency enhancement of ultra-broadband RF power amplifier with simple load network approach is introduced, in which a combination of the reactance compensation and third-harmonic tuning is developed with design equations. The fabricated prototype board of the mixed mode power amplifier demonstrated 10 W output power over a wide frequency band of 0.4-2.0 GHz with an efficiency greater than 62% and observes good agreement between simulation and measured output. This implementation is suitable for two-way radio product applications.
Large Signal Design of Distributed Power Amplifier with Discrete RF MOSFET Devices
2006 International RF and Microwave Conference, 2006
This paper will describe the analysis of distributed power amplifier using discrete RF MOSFET devices. Large signal design is discussed where non-uniform of drain line's characteristic impedance is employed to enhance the output power and efficiency performance. The amplifier demonstrates 1 Watt output power with 13dB associated gain and 26% of PAE over 100MHz to 600MHz frequency band.
Balanced AlGaN/GaN HEMT cascode cells: design method for wideband distributed amplifiers
Electronics Letters, 2008
A specific design of a GaN HEMT cascode cell dedicated to flip-chip distributed power amplifiers is presented in this paper. The active device used in the design is a 8x50μm Al-GaN/GaN HEMT grown on SiC substrate. The GaN-based die which integrates the active cascode cell and its passive matching elements is flip-chipped onto an AlN substrate via electrical and mechanical bumps. The matching elements of the cascode cell are composed of series capacitors on the gate of both transistors with additional resistors to insure stability and bias path. The series capacitor on the gate of the 1 st transistor is added to enable the power optimization of wideband distributed amplifiers up to their maximum frequency while the series capacitor on the gate of the 2 nd transistor is dedicated to the intrinsic power balance of the cascode cell.