A 10 W, 35 % Power Added Efficiency 6 to 18 GHz GaN Power Amplifier

This paper presents the design and test results of a 6 to 18 GHz power amplifier MMIC fabricated with a Gallium Nitride process, using a reactively matched non-distributed architecture. This circuit exhibits a gain of 20 dB, input and output return losses of 10 dB, an average output power of 40.8 dBm with associated Power Added Efficiency (PAE) of 35 %. As compared with similar amplifiers previously reported, this two-stage circuit presents to our knowledge the best PAE across the full bandwidth with a size of only 13 mm
²
.