A 2–20-GHz 10-W High-Efficiency GaN Power Amplifier Using Reactive Matching Technique
Qian Lin, Haifeng Wu, Yu-Nan Hua, Yijun Chen, Liulin Hu, Linsheng Liu, Shanji Chen
Abstract
In this article, we present the analysis, design, and implementation of a wideband 10-W monolithic microwave integrated circuit power amplifier (PA), fabricated in a low-cost 0.1-μm gallium nitride (GaN) on Si technology. The design is focused on the realization of a low-loss and wideband impedance transformation networks across 2-20 GHz using a reactive matching (RM) technique. The two-stage GaN PA achieves an average output power of 40.1 dBm and a peak output power of 41.6 dBm at 13 GHz, in the CW-mode operation, with a smallsignal gain of S <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">21</sub> > 25.5 dB over the entire bandwidth. The average power-added efficiency (PAE) is 21%, with a peak PAE of 29% at 6 GHz. The PA chip occupies an area of 2.9×2.6 mm <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sup> . To the best of our knowledge, the PA presented in this work demonstrates the highest broadband gain among the reported GaN-based RMPAs with a corresponding output power of about 10 W.