Design of a 5W X-Band GaN HEMT Power Amplifier

This paper presents a design of a single stage 5W X-Band GaN HEMT Power Amplifier using a die Cree model CGHV1J006D. The amplifier is optimized for the frequency range of 11.5GHz to 11.9GHz. Load pull analysis is performed on the active device to identify the appropriate load impedance and source impedance terminations. With this proposed design approach, it was possible to suppress the power leakage into higher order harmonics and achieve 15.26dB linear small signal gain with more than +37dBm output power at 3dB gain compression with a corresponding maximum power-added efficiency of 46.60% and drain efficiency of greater than 49%.