A 2 W, 62% PAE, small chip size HBT MMIC for 3 V PCN applications

A 62% power added efficiency (PAE) AlGaAs-GaAs HBT MMIC power amplifier with a very small chip size of 1.2 mm/sup 2/ for use in PCN applications (1800 MHz) is described. Maximum output power is 2 W at only a single voltage supply of 3 V. The linear gain of the two-stage MMIC is 33 dB. To our knowledge this is the best combination of power performance data for wireless applications demonstrated so far for a MMIC. The chip size is more than a factor of four smaller than comparable MMICs known before. The MMIC offers the potential both for low cost production due to small chip size, single voltage supply and high performance at the same time.