A Ku-Band Power Amplifier MMIC For Space Application

This paper describes a Ku-band power amplifier (PA) monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC), designed using space qualified 0.13µm GaAs pHEMT foundry process from M/s OMMIC. The MMIC can be used for the development of beacon SSPA and for driver stages of high power SSPAs at Ku-band frequency for on-board applications. The MMIC is a two stage amplifier in balanced configuration yielding higher RF power, moderate gain and fully matched 50 Ohm input and output impedances over wide-band. It demonstrates a small signal gain of better than 20 dB in the frequency range of 10.4 – 12.4 GHz and delivers better than 30 dBm (1W) saturated output power with power added efficiency (PAE) of 21% at center frequency for a chip size of 4.15 X 3.5 mm
²
.