Highly efficient wideband X‐band MMIC class‐F power amplifier with cascode FP GaN HEMT. Issue 17 (1st August 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Kang, J.; Moon, J.‐S.
• Is Part Of: Electronics letters. Volume 53:Issue 17(2017)
• Page Start: 1207
• Page End: 1209
• Publication Date: 2017-08-01
• Subjects: MMIC power amplifiers -- HEMT integrated circuits -- aluminium compounds -- gallium compounds -- wide band gap semiconductors -- III‐V semiconductors -- semiconductor device breakdown -- millimetre wave power amplifiers -- microwave field effect transistors -- millimetre wave field effect transistors -- field effect MMIC -- wideband amplifiers -- integrated circuit testing; frequency 58 GHz -- size 0.14 mum -- voltage 44 V -- power 9.2 W -- frequency 10.2 GHz -- on‐wafer test -- high‐voltage operating cascode devices -- high breakdown field‐plate high‐electron‐mobility transistor devices -- voltage swing -- minimised device size -- minimised output capacitance impact -- high‐power class‐F operation -- wideband high‐power single‐chip X‐band MMIC class‐F power amplifier -- cascode FP HEMT -- AlGaN‐GaN -- efficiency 50 percent -- frequency 1.6 GHz; Electronics -- Periodicals; 621.381
• DOI: 10.1049/el.2017.1672
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0013-5194

Abstract

Abstract : Wideband high‐power single‐chip X‐band class‐F power amplifier with excellent output performances is reported. In order to achieve high‐power class‐F operation under minimised output capacitance impact at the frequency, high‐voltage operation with minimised device size is pursued and its voltage swing becomes maximised by adopting high breakdown field‐plate (FP) GaN high‐electron‐mobility transistor (HEMT) devices with cascode configuration. For the fabrication, 0.14 µm FP AlGaN/GaN HEMT technology with 58 GHz fT and ∼100 V breakdown is used. Based on on‐wafer test at 44 V V dd, the fabricated class‐F power amplifier delivers maximum 61.1% power added efficiency (PAE) with 9.2 W at 10.2 GHz. With the help of high‐voltage operating cascode devices of minimised size, it also delivers excellent bandwidth of 1.6 GHz at the point of 50% PAE and high‐power density of 4.42 W/mm is demonstrated.