A monolithic MEMS switched dual-path power amplifier

• Published in: IEEE microwave and wireless components letters Vol. 11; no. 7; pp. 285 - 286
• Main Authors: Kim, M., Hacker, J.B., Mihailovich, R.E., DeNatale, J.F.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York, NY IEEE 01.07.2001; Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
• Subjects: Amplification; Amplifiers; Applied sciences; Circuit properties; Devices; Electric, optical and optoelectronic circuits; Electronics; Exact sciences and technology; Gallium arsenide; HEMTs; High electron mobility transistors; Micromechanical devices; Microwave circuits, microwave integrated circuits, microwave transmission lines, submillimeter wave circuits; MMICs; Power amplifiers; Power generation; Radio frequencies; Radiofrequency amplifiers; Radiofrequency microelectromechanical systems; Semiconductor devices; Switches; Switching circuits; Microwave integrated circuits; X band; Selector switch; Power amplifier; Monolithic integrated circuit; HEMT integrated circuits; Microelectromechanical device
• ISSN: 1531-1309; 1558-1764
• DOI: 10.1109/7260.933772

RF MEMS switches have been successfully integrated with HEMT MMIC circuits on a GaAs substrate to construct a dual-path power amplifier at X-band. The amplifier uses two MEMS switches at the input to guide the RF signal between two paths. Each path provides single-stage amplification using different size HEMT devices, one with 80-μm width and the other with 640-μm. Depending on the required output power level, one of the two paths is selected to minimize the dc power consumption. Measurements showed the amplifier producing similar small signal gains of 13.2 and 11.5 dB at 10 GHz for the small and the large devices, respectively. The best PAE was 28.1 percent with 8.5 dBm of output power for the small device, and 15.3 percent with 14.6 dBm for the large device.