A K-Band 5W Doherty Amplifier MMIC Utilizing 0.15&amp;#181;m GaN on SiC HEMT Technology

IEEE Trans. Microwave Theory Techn.

Jiang

et al. 2014

In this paper, a Doherty power amplifier for K-band point-to-point microwave radio, developed in TriQuint GaAs 0.15-m PWR pHEMT monolithic technology, is presented. Highly efficient driver stages on both the main and auxiliary branches have been designed and optimized to boost gain with minimal impact on power-added efficiency. The selected architecture enables a modular combination to reach higher power levels. Matching network structures have been designed, according to simple equivalent circuit approaches, to obtain the desired 10% fractional bandwidth. The fabricated power amplifier (PA) exhibits, at 24 GHz in continuous-wave conditions, an output power of 30.9 dBm, with a power-added efficiency of 38% at saturation and 20% at 6 dB of output power back-off, together with a gain of 12.5 dB. System-level characterization at 24 GHz, in very demanding conditions, with a 28-MHz channel 7.5-dB peak-to-average ratio modulated signal, showed full compliance with the standard emission mask, adopting a simple predistorter, with average output power of 23.5 dBm, and average efficiency above 14%. The measured performance favorably compare with other academic and commercial K-band PAs for similar applications.Index Terms-Doherty power amplifiers (DPAs), gallium arsenide (GaAs), monolithic microwave integrated circuits (MMICs), point-to-point radio.

Section: A Cw Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

K-Band GaAs MMIC Doherty Power Amplifier for Microwave Radio With Optimized Driver

Quaglia

IEEE Trans. Microwave Theory Techn.

Jiang

et al. 2014

“…This technology has already been exploited for the state-of-the-art DPAs up to the C-band, while has never been tested at 15 GHz for the design of an advanced PA. Table I compares the proposed MMIC with similar DPAs in terms of frequency band, maximum output power, and drain efficiency at saturation and 6-dB OBO. The DPA of [2], thanks also to the use of a more advanced technology (0.15-μm GaN) and of distributed networks and a large area, shows similar performance at higher frequency. On the other hand, it can be observed that the proposed DPA compares well with the reported examples, despite the use of a technology at the limit of its capabilities.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 92%

“…available, no driver stage has been included in the MMIC. The limited area also forced to use semilumped matching networks, with higher losses and sensitivity with respect to a distributed approach employed for example in [2] and [4]. An optimum intrinsic load of 80 , estimated with simple load-line considerations and refined through large signal simulations, has been chosen.…”

Section: Designmentioning

confidence: 99%

A 4-W Doherty Power Amplifier in GaN MMIC Technology for 15-GHz Applications

Quaglia

IEEE Microw. Wireless Compon. Lett.

Rubio

et al. 2017

This letter presents an integrated Doherty power amplifier (PA) in 0.25-µm GaN on SiC process. Designed for 15-GHz point-to-point radios, the PA exhibits an output power of 36 ± 0.5 dBm between 13.7 and 15.3 GHz, while at 14.6 GHz, it shows a 6-dB output back-off efficiency higher than 28%. Modulated signal measurements applying digital predistortion demonstrate the compatibility of the amplifier with point-to-point radio requirements. To the best of our knowledge, this PA has the highest back-off efficiency for the 15-GHz band, and is the first GaN Doherty in the Ku-band.Index Terms-Doherty, gallium nitride, microwave monolithic integrated circuit (MMIC).

“…The design is based on the 0.15-µm PWR pHEMT MMIC process of TriQuint Semiconductors [3]. This is one of the first examples of Kband DPAs [4], [5] and implements in GaAs a complex driver architecture able to increase the inherent low gain of DPAs. This cell is conceived as the building block of a 4-way combined PA, able to reach the 4 W output power typically required by commercial products for backhaul.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A K-band GaAs MMIC Doherty power amplifier for point-to-point microwave backhaul applications

2014 International Workshop on Integrated Nonlinear Microwave and Millimetre-Wave Circuits (INMMiC)

Guerrieri

Ghione

et al. 2014

This work reports the design of a GaAs monolithic K-band Doherty power amplifier for point-to-point microwave backhaul applications. The design of the module is described, from the choice of the architecture based on power budget and gain requirements, to the analysis of the solutions adopted. The MMIC is expected to achieve 32.5 dBm output power in the 20.8-24 GHz band, PAE higher than 32% at saturation (20% at 6 dB output back-off) and gain higher than 10 dB.