55 to 59 GHz MMIC non-foster circuit enabled Class-J GaAs pHEMT power amplifier

This paper presents an MMIC (monolithic microwave integrated circuit) non-Foster circuit enabled Class-J GaAs pHEMT (Gallium Arsenide pseudomorphic high electron mobility transistor) power amplifier. The power amplifier was designed based on WIN Semiconductor PP10-10 process transistor biased with drain supply voltage of 2.5 V at quiescent drain-to-source current (I
_DSq
) of 2 mA. The power amplifier operates from 55 to 59 GHz with center frequency of 57 GHz. The non-Foster circuit forms part of the input matching network and provides the negative capacitance required to cancel the transistor input parasitic capacitance. The effective capacitance at 57 GHz stands at -0.16 pF. The proposed MMIC power amplifier has chip dimension of 3 × 1.8 mm, 53.9% drain efficiency, 34% power added efficiency (PAE), 14 dBm output power and transducer power gain of 4 dB at 57 GHz and 10 dBm input power.