High power GaN-HEMT microwave switches for X-Band and wideband applications

In this article the design, fabrication and test of X-Band and 2–18 GHz wideband high power SPDT MMIC switches in GaN technology are presented. Said switches have demonstrated state-of-the-art performance and RF fabrication yields better than 65%. In particular the X-Band switch exhibits an on-state power handling capability of better than 37dBm at the 1dB insertion loss compression point and the wideband switch shows an insertion loss compression of 1dB for input power higher than 34.3 dBm in the entire bandwidth.