Over 20 W 2.5 to 10.5 GHz wideband two-stage GaN MMIC power amplifier with distributed and reactively-matched amplifier stages

In this paper, a 2.5 to 10.5 GHz GaN MMIC power amplifier achieving output power of over 20 W is reported. The developed amplifier is a two-stage amplifier composed of a non-uniform distributed power amplifier for the first stage and a reactively-matched amplifier for the second stage. Measured performance of the developed amplifier shows saturated output power of 18 to 37 W (28 W on average), power-added efficiency of 19 to 40% over 2.5 to 10.5 GHz. The highest output power among MMIC amplifiers operated in a fractional bandwidth of greater than 100
^%
is demonstrated.