Linear Distributed GaN MMIC Power Amplifier with Improved Power-added Efficiency
Abstract
We report on a multi-octave (100 MHz 8GHz), linear nonuniform distributed amplifier (NDPA) in a MMIC architecture using scaled 120-nm short-gate length GaN HEMTs. The linear NDPAs were built with six sections in a nonuniform distributed amplifier approach ,where each cell consists of main and gm3 cells. The small signal gain was >10 dB over the band, with saturated C W output power of ~35 dBm at Vdd = 17 V. The PAE improved by 7% 10% within the band compared to the previous NDPA with 150-nm gate-length GaN FETs .Based on two-tone testing, the linear NDPA showed improved OIP3 of ~50 dBm, compared to OIP3 of 42 dBm for the NDPA without linearization. Under QPSK LTE waveform, the ACPR1improved by ~10 dBc at average output power of 23 dBm, without digital pre-distortion.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Mar 01, 2017
- Accession Number
- AD1041342
Entities
People
- Chuck Mcguire
- Danny Wong
- Dave Brown
- Dustin Le
- Helen Fung
- Hwa Y Tai
- Jeong-sun Moon
- Jongchan Kang
- Peter Chen
- Robert Grabar