An indium phosphide X-band class-E power MMIC with 40% bandwidth

A broadband, high efficiency, X-band power amplifier is presented in this paper. The single-stage amplifier is based on indium phosphide (InP) double heterojunction bipolar transistor (DHBT) technology. In order to obtain high efficiency operation, a switch mode, class-E amplifier topology was selected. Special attention has been paid to providing the required fundamental matching conditions, as well as appropriate harmonic terminations, over the frequency band of interest. As a result, the amplifier obtained a bandwidth of 40%, with 45-60% PAE, 19-21.5dBm Pout, and 9-11.5dB large-signal gain at X-band. To the best of our knowledge, this circuit demonstrates the widest bandwidth for a class-E amplifier at X-band.