X-band GaN MMIC Power Amplifier

The demand for monolithic microwave integrated circuit power amplifiers(MMIC PAs)has been rapidly increasing over the past two decades.The main applications include testing and instrumentation,high-throughput point-to-point radio links,and electronic systems such as electronic warfare and radar.Increasing the output power and power efficiency of a single microwave power amplifier has important implications for the performance and reliability of electronic systems.In recent years,the GaN HEMT process based on the third generation of semiconductors has gradually matured,high breakdown voltage,high power density,high thermal conductivity,high saturation electron mobility and other advantages make it quickly and widely used in MMIC circuit design.Monolithic circuit design using GaN HEMTs can better improve power amplifier performance and efficiency.This paper focuses on the X-band broadband Ga N MMIC power amplifiers,using GaN process with different substrate,and adopts broadband matching technology to carry out the research of GaN MMIC power amplifiers covering the full band of X-band.The main work is as follows:(1)Based on a 100nm silicon(Si)based GaN high electron mobility transistor(HEMT)process,a 20W GaN MMIC power amplifier was designed.For the design of wideband high power amplifiers,a generalized LC cell matching method is used.This method uses series or parallel capacitive inductances as the reactance parameters.By changing their circuit parameters to change the topology of the network,the process of obtaining a suitable topology is accelerated.The simulation results show that when the static dc bias leakage voltage and gate voltage are Vds=12V and Vgs=-1V respectively,and the input power Pin=23dBm,the output power in the 8~12GHz band is greater than42.5dBm and the power gain is greater than 19.5dB,PAE>30%,the input and output return loss is less than-10dB,the small signal gain is greater than 24.7dB,and the chip area is 4.6*3.3mm~2.(2)Based on the 0.25?m SiC-based GaN HEMT process,a 20W X-band GaN MMIC power amplifier was designed using the same matching method as above.The simulation results show that the static DC bias bias voltage and the gate voltage are Vds=28V and Vgs=-3V,when the input power Pin=23dBm,the output power is greater than 43.2dBm in the 8~12GHz band,the power gain is greater than 20.2dBm,PAE>23%,the input and output return loss is less than-10dB,and the layout small signal gain is greater than 27dB,the chip area is 5.6×4mm~2.