A high power and high efficiency 20 GHz InP HBT monolithic power amplifier for phased array applications

A high performance single chip monolithic power amplifier suitable for 20 GHz phased array applications exhibiting high power and high efficiency is presented in this paper. The amplifier demonstrates a 14 dB linear gain, a maximum CW power of 32 dBm, and a 30% power-added-efficiency. For the power amplifier design, we have utilized load pull analysis on HBT devices at various power levels. This power amplifier achieved the highest power and efficiency, demonstrating the suitability of the InGaAs/InAlAs/InP HBT production process for phased array applications.