A Ka-Band Power Amplifier MMIC Utilizing an Advanced 100nm GaN HEMT Technology

A Ka-band monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC) power amplifier is reported in this paper. The MMIC is based on an advanced 100nm GaN on Si technology with a
$\mathrm{f}_{\mathrm{T}} > 105\text{GHz}$
. Parallel matching networks and an overall optimization method are combined to simplify the design procedure and reduce the chip size. The designed amplifier is manufactured and tested in a test fixture. Under continuous-wave (CW) operation, The MMIC exhibits 20dB of small signal gain and 1.8-3.2W saturated output power across 26-31GHz. The MMIC power amplifier is suitable for Ka band satellite applications.