50 watt MMIC power amplifier design for 2 GHz applications

In this paper the design and the measurement of a 2 GHz 50 Watt (CW) MMIC power amplifier (PA) are discussed. The authors believe that this is the most powerful MMIC implementation that has been reported. The amplifier utilizes a class-F combining structure and realized using the company internal 0.5 /spl mu/m GaAs pHEMT power process. The MMIC measure 10/spl times/10 mm/sup 2/ and delivers 50 Watts of CW power at an efficiency greater than 45% over more than 10% bandwidth at a nominal 12 V supply voltage. The amplifier gain is 21 dB throughout the operational band.