High efficiency Ka-band Gallium Nitride power amplifier MMICs

The design and performance of two high efficiency Ka-band power amplifier MMICs utilizing a 0.15μm GaN HEMT process technology is presented. Measured in-fixture continuous wave (CW) results for the 3-stage balanced amplifier demonstrates up to 11W of output power and 30% power added efficiency (PAE) at 30GHz. The 3-stage single-ended design produced over 6W of output power and up to 34% PAE. The die size for the balanced and single-ended MMICs are 3.24×3.60mm
²
and 1.74×3.24mm
²
respectively.