Dual band power amplifier in GaN technology

Abstract

Experimental results of a simultaneous dual band high efficiency harmonic tuned power amplifier in GaN HEMT technology are presented. The amplifier has been realized in hybrid form and the measured results shown a peak of 53% and 46% of drain efficiency with 33 dBm and 32.5 dBm output power in the first (at 2.45 GHz) and second (at 3.3 GHz) bands, respectively. Moreover, a Zero transmission condition has been obtained, resulting in a measured value of S-21 lower than -15 dB at 2.8 GHz. (C) 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc

Evaluation of GaN technology in power amplifier design

“…To investigate the GaN capabilities for radar system, an Ultra-Wide-Band (UWB) HPA to operate from 0.8 GHz to 4 GHz was designed [5]. The experimental results reported in Figure 4 have shown an output power higher than 32.5 dBm in the overall band, with associated drain efficiency higher than 45%.…”

“…GaN devices offers high V BR joint with high I Max values, thus obviously allowing to attain highest output power. Moreover, the possibility to adopt high drain bias voltages increases the value of the expected optimum load which becomes closer to 50 ⍀, simplifying the output network design and allowing broadband solutions [5]. On the contrary, the high knee voltage experienced in GaN device affects the theoretical efficiency levels as compared as to GaAs solutions.…”

“…In the last two decades, a number of characterization techniques have been researched, such as the swept frequency method [1,2], the pulse spectrum analysis [3], the interferometric FM sideband method [4], and the white optical noise method [5]. However, for the aforementioned methods, it is limited by either relatively narrow measurable frequency band or complicated configurations [6].…”

Novel dual‐band matching network for concurrent dual‐band power amplifier applications

“…The increasing interest in multistandard and multiband (MB) wireless/mobile communication systems has increased the demands for MB components in the RF front-end [1]. As one of the critical components in the RF front-end, the RF power amplifier (PA) has to operate in MBs concurrently to meet the requirements of multistandard and MB of wireless/mobile communication systems [2][3][4][5][6][7][8]. Among MBPAs, the dual-band power amplifier (DBPAs) have been developed and captured more and more attention recently [5][6][7][8].…”

Accurate GaN HEMT nonquasi‐static large‐signal model including dispersive effects

“…Nowadays, GaN technology represents the most attractive choice among other alternative semiconductor materials (e.g., GaAs and Si) for high‐power applications at microwave and millimeter‐wave frequencies. As a matter of fact, high electron‐mobility transistors (HEMTs) based on this wide‐bandgap III‐V compound semiconductor have emerged as the leading microwave active solid state devices for high power amplifier (HPA) systems [1–7]. The extraction of an accurate microwave nonlinear model for GaN HEMT is at the heart of a reliable and efficient HPA design.…”