High Performance GaN Based Switching and Linear Power Amplifier for Airborne Application

Considering the requirements of amplifiers for modern communication systems and having different topology variants with different advantages or disadvantages over each other, this paper presents experimental comparison between Class AB and High efficiency Class F^-1 power amplifiers using GaN based Transistors. The results show that Class F^-1 power amplifier exhibit higher output power and higher efficiency but degraded linearity response as compared to class AB power amplifier. For comparison, the inverse class F and class AB power amplifiers were designed and implemented at 2.14 GHz using GaN Hemt. Measured performance showed 7% higher power added efficiency along with 0.3 dB increase in output power for inverse class F power amplifier.