A Reconfigurable S-/X-Band GaN MMIC Power Amplifier

• Published in: IEEE microwave and wireless components letters Vol. 32; no. 6; pp. 547 - 550
• Main Authors: Kang, Li, Chen, Wenhua, Wu, Aimin
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: IEEE 01.06.2022
• Subjects: GaN; HEMTs; Impedance matching; Insertion loss; Microwave circuits; monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC); power amplifier (PA); Power generation; reconfigurable; Transistors; Wireless communication
• ISSN: 1531-1309; 1558-1764
• DOI: 10.1109/LMWC.2022.3141230

A reconfigurable <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">S </tex-math></inline-formula>-/<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">X </tex-math></inline-formula>-band monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC) power amplifier (PA) utilizing a 0.25-<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">\mu \text{m} </tex-math></inline-formula> GaN HEMT technology is presented in this letter. A dual-frequency output matching network combined with reconfigurable interstage and input matching networks are adopted to realize the band configuration function of the PA. Moreover, the control terminals of all the on-chip switches are properly consolidated to simplify the demanded control signal. The MMIC can be easily configured for 2-3 GHz <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">S </tex-math></inline-formula>-band and 10-12 GHz <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">X </tex-math></inline-formula>-band. When configured for <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">S </tex-math></inline-formula>-band, the MMIC achieves 22 dB of gain, an input return loss (IRL) better than −10 dB, more than 30.5 dBm of saturated output power, and a PAE of 15%-24%. When configured for <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">X </tex-math></inline-formula>-band, the MMIC achieves 14 dB of gain, an IRL better than −15 dB, more than 31 dBm of saturated output power, and a PAE of 18%-22%.