A Ku-Band Broadband Stacked FET Power Amplifier Using 0.15 μm GaAs pHEMT

Abstract

To meet the application requirements of broadband radar systems for broadband power amplifiers, a Ku-band broadband power amplifier (PA) microwave monolithic integrated circuit (MMIC) based on a 0.15 µm gallium arsenide (GaAs) high-electron-mobility transistor (HEMT) technology is proposed in this paper. In this design, the advantages of the stacked FET structure in the broadband PA design are illustrated by theoretical derivation. The proposed PA uses a two-stage amplifier structure and a two-way power synthesis structure to achieve high-power gain and high-power design, respectively. The fabricated power amplifier was tested under continuous wave conditions, and the test results showed a peak power of 30.8 dBm at 16 GHz. At 15 to 17.5 GHz, the output power was above 30 dBm with a PAE of more than 32%. The fractional bandwidth of the 3 dB output power was 30%. The chip area was 3.3 × 1.2 mm2 and included input and output test pads.

Keywords

• gallium arsenide (GaAs)
• Ku-band
• microwave monolithic integrated circuit (MMIC)
• broadband power amplifier
• stacked FET