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This paper reports the first MMIC using the HIFET (High-Voltage, High-Impedance FET) concept with very broadband power performance and small die size. This GaAs MMIC power amplifier has a gain of 21dB ± ldB and over 2W of P1dB over the entire 30 MHz to 2.5 GHz frequency band with 20% efficiency, at a bias voltage of +20V. We believe that this is the first MMIC ever reported which achieves this combination of instantaneous bandwidth, output power, and efficiency, within a die size of 4 mm2.

We report the design and performance of an ultra-broadband power amplifier. It achieves 10 Watts output power with 21dB ± 1.5dB gain from 20 MHz to 3000 MHz. At lower frequencies from 20 to 1000 MHz the output power is 15 Watts with 22% efficiency. To achieve this performance, we employ a new design concept to control the device impedance and the power combiner impedance to be naturally 50 Ohms, such that no impedance matching is needed. Also, we developed a broadband microwave balun as a push-pull power combiner, which doubles as an impedance transformer. We believe the combination of output power, bandwidth and efficiency is the best reported to date.Index Terms -Power amplifiers, power combiners, broadband amplifiers, broadband balun, HIFET amplifiers.

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