SiC MESFET hybrid amplifier with 30-W output power at 10 GHz

• Published in: Proceedings 2000 IEEE/ Cornell Conference on High Performance Devices (Cat. No.00CH37122) pp. 173 - 177
• Main Authors: Sadler, R.A., Allen, S.T., Pribble, W.L., Alcorn, T.S., Sumakeris, J.J., Palmour, J.W.
• Format: Conference Proceeding
• Language: English
• Published: IEEE 2000
• Subjects: Capacitors; High power amplifiers; MESFETs; Microstrip; Power amplifiers; Power generation; Pulse amplifiers; Pulse compression methods; Silicon carbide; Testing
• ISBN: 9780780363816; 0780363817
• ISSN: 1529-3068
• DOI: 10.1109/CORNEL.2000.902535

We report here the demonstration of over 30 watts of output power at X band from a single 12-mm SiC transistor under pulsed-mode conditions. For small (250-/spl mu/m) devices, we also report record high power densities of 5.2 W/mm at 3.5 GHz and 4.5 W/mm at 10 GHz. The 12-mm MESFET's were tested in hybrid amplifiers, matched with chip capacitors and microstrip lines on 15-mil alumina. When operated at 9.7 GHz at a drain bias of 50 V and gate bias of -5.5 V, these hybrid amplifiers showed pulsed output power as high as 30.5 watts at 2-dB compression, with 7.6 dB linear gain. Furthermore, output power of greater than 27 W was obtained with devices from each of three wafers processed together, indicating the good wafer-to-wafer performance of the SiC power MESFET process.