A GaAs Monolithic 6-18 GHz Medium Power Amplifier

A monolithic two-stage medium power amplifier, fabricated on GaAs and designed to cover the 6-18 GHz frequency band, is described. Amplifier circuit topology, process sequence, and measured performance results are presented. Chips from several epitaxial and ion implanted slices have demonstrated good output power and gain performance across the 7.0-17.0 GHz band, achieving an average of 27.3 dBm (540 mW or 0.45 watts per millimeter of gate width) at 18.8 percent power-added efficiency, with an average gain of 10.6 dB, at 1 dB gain compression.