A Broadband Highly-efficient S-band Hybrid Power Amplifier

This paper describes the design and characterization of a S-band broadband highly-efficient power amplifier using Gallium Nitride HEMTs. The amplifier is realized by the combination of passive matching elements and power bars. The power amplifier is assembled with hybrid microwave integrated circuits (HMICs) technology with an overall size of 9mm×6mm. When biased under pulsed condition of 1ms pulse width and 10% duty cycle, the power amplifier has a saturated output power up to 167W, an associated power gain larger than 12dB, and a PAE greater than 67% within the entire band width of 2.6GHz to 3.4GHz. IR measurement shows that the power amplifier has a superior thermal performance.