35 dBm, 35 GHz power amplifier MMICs using 6-inch GaAs pHEMT commercial technology

A 3.5 watt, 35 GHz power amplifier MMIC has been developed. The amplifier exhibits high performance at low processing cost, through the use of a commercially available 6-inch, 0.15-μm pHEMT process with 100 μm thick substrate. The single-ended four stage amplifier MMIC has 22 dB of gain at 35 GHz, 3.5 watts saturated output power (35.5 dBm), and power added efficiency of more than 25%, within a chip size of 12.75 mm
²
. In terms of power density, this is 740 mW/mm, which is to the authors’ knowledge the best reported for fully matched GaAs pHEMT MMICs on 100-μm substrates at millimetre-wave frequencies.