High power and high efficiency 30 W compact S-band HBT power chips with gold or diamond heat spreaders

HBT power technology offers an excellent compromise for high power and high efficiency amplifiers up to the Ku band. In this paper, we present the performances of GaInP/GaAs power chips. Two different approaches to thermal management were proposed for very high power levels. Pulsed power measurements of power chips integrating thick gold or diamond as heat spreaders are reported. An output power of 31 W with 49.5% of PAE was obtained at 2.9 GHz on 3.3mm/sup 2/ of GaAs area. This corresponds to a power density of 9.4W/mm/sup 2/. These power chips constitute very attractive chips for compact high power, high efficiency amplifiers for radar and communication systems.