Design Process of Wideband Power Amplifier In The L-Band Frequency Range

This paper talks about how the Advanced Design System (ADS) from Keysight has been used to design a wide- band class-AB power amplifier (PA). Wolfspeed’s CGH40025 is a non-linear model of a high electron mobility transistor (HEMT) made of gallium nitride (GaN) that has been used in this PA design. The operational frequency band of PA is 1.0–2.0 GHz, at a center frequency of 1.5 GHz. Load-pull analysis has been used to calculate the load and input impedance of a transistor to get the maximum output power. On Roger’s 4350B substrate, the prematching network & the output & input matching networks have been realized. With this design of PA, the received output power is greater than 41.5 dBm, the large signal gain is greater than 10 dB, and the power added efficiency (PAE) and drain efficiency (D
eff
) are greater than 50% over the complete operating frequency band. This PA’s primary application is in foliage penetration radar systems.