GaN Power Amplifiers: Results and Prospective

This article is focused on GaN-based power amplifiers for applications up to 10 GHz. Several PAs developed in both MMIC and hybrid technologies for different RF and microwave frequency bands will be described. In particular, the designs of two ultra-wideband (UWB) PAs are reported together with experimental results. The first one is based on commercial GaN-on-SiC technology while the other one is developed exploiting a GaN-on-Si technology. Examples of GaN-based Doherty PAs for cellular base-stations are also discussed and state-of-the-art performances are reported. Finally, a GaN MMIC PA for Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) systems at X-Band is described with related experimental investigation. Index Terms – Power Amplifiers, GaN, MMIC, Ultra-Wide Band, HMIC, Doherty.