C-Band 30 W High PAE Power Amplifier MMIC with Second Harmonic Suppression for Radar Network Application

• Published in: Micromachines (Basel) Vol. 13; no. 12; p. 2079
• Main Authors: Yang, Fan, Song, Leijun, Xu, Yuehang
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 26.11.2022; MDPI
• Subjects: additional power efficiency (PAE); Amplification; Bandwidths; C band; Design; Efficiency; Frequency ranges; Gallium nitrides; Harmonic control; High electron mobility transistors; Integrated circuits; microwave monolithic integrated circuit (MMIC); MMIC (circuits); Network software; power amplifier (PA); Power amplifiers; Power gain; Pulse duration; radar network; Radar networks; Radar systems; Satellite communications; second harmonic suppression (SHS); Semiconductor devices; Simulation; Topology; Transistors; additional power efficiency (PAE); microwave monolithic integrated circuit (MMIC); power amplifier (PA); radar network; second harmonic suppression (SHS)
• ISSN: 2072-666X; 2072-666X
• DOI: 10.3390/mi13122079

In order to meet the application requirements of radar networks for high efficiency and high second harmonic suppression (SHS) of power amplifiers, this paper proposes a C-band 30 W power amplifier (PA) microwave monolithic integrated circuit (MMIC) based on 0.25 μm gallium nitride (GaN) high electron mobility transistor (HEMT) process. The proposed PA uses a two-stage amplifier structure to achieve high power gain. A topology with SHS is designed in the output-matching network. Besides, the large signal model load pull simulation and the harmonic control technology in the output stage are used to improve efficiency. The high-power additional efficiency (PAE) and high SHS of the PA MMIC are achieved simultaneously. In the 5-6 GHz frequency range, multiple indicator measurements of the proposed PA show that output power is over 45 dBm, the PAE is more than 57%, the SHS exceeds 45 dBc, the power gain is greater than 24 dB, which are conducted under the condition of 100 μs pulse width and 10% duty cycle. In addition, the size of the PA MMIC, including bonding pads, is 3.3 × 3.1 mm .