GaN Wide Band Power Integrated Circuits

Gallium nitride (GaN) amplifiers have demonstrated very high power density as well as wide bandwidth in previous research. This paper examines their use in supplying flat gain, power, and linearity across a large bandwidth. It demonstrates two types of power amplifiers: a Ft Doubler (FT2) amplifier and a Cascode amplifier, both of which require a simple PCB tune. Both amplifiers show 0.2 to 4GHz bandwidth with 30 dBm PldB output power. The 3GPP WCDMA output power is 20 dBm at -45 dBc ACLR. Also, a WiMAX design is presented for the 3.2-3.8 GHz band to show the feasibility of a GaN HEMT amplifier in a relatively broad band, high linearity commercial application, with 27 dBm output at 2% EVM