High power and high efficiency Ka band power amplifier

A 36 W Ka-band MMIC power amplifier using 0.2 um gate GaN HEMT technology is presented. The power was measured across 27 to 30 GHz with a minimum 30% PAE. A peak power of 40 W at 27 GHz was demonstrated. The MMIC area is a compact 13.5 mm^2 and uses 10.67 mm device periphery in the output stage. This demonstration is a significant improvement in performance over current Ka-band MMIC amplifiers.