Applications of GaN HEMTs and SiC MESFETs in High Efficiency Class-E Power Amplifier Design for WCDMA Applications

This paper presents high efficiency class-E power amplifiers using wide-bandgap devices such as GaN HEMT and SiC MESFET, which are designed at WCDMA band of 2.14 GHz. The output network using transmission lines is implemented to suppress harmonics and minimize losses. Measured results of the class-E power amplifier using wide-bandgap devices for a single tone have been compared to that of the class-E Si LDMOS power amplifier. For GaN HEMT and SiC MESFET cases, the power-added efficiency (PAE) of 70% with a gain of 13.0 dB and 72.3% with a gain of 10.3 dB are achieved at an output power of 43.0 dBm and 40.3 dBm, respectively, through significant reduction of harmonic power levels.