200-W GaN power amplifier using 48V process technology

Abstract

Gallium Nitride High Electron Mobility Transistor (GaN HEMT) monolithic microwave integrated circuits (MMICs) play a pivotal role across diverse applications, including deep-space satellite communication systems, phased array radar, and imaging and sensing systems. In response to the evolving demands of these rapidly advancing applications, there has been a growing imperative to develop monolithic high power amplifiers (HPAs) for system-on-a-chip scenarios in recent years. Taking advantage of high performance GaN HEMT technology and high-Q factor on-chip passive components, this paper introduces and implements a novel monolithic HPA with a high drain voltage of 48V, capable of delivering a high output power. The proposed GaN MMIC utilizes field plate 0.35µm AlGaN/GaN-SiC HEMT technology with a ft∼22GHz. The HPA leverages cascaded multi-stage amplification architecture and power combining network. The implemented HPA demonstrates notable performance metrics, including an average power gain of 23dB and an average saturated output power of 200W across a bandwidth from 8GHz to 10.5GHz in experimental measurements. The designed HPA occupies a compact chip area of 4.10×5.46mm².