A Laser Beam for Boosting the Power Added Efficiency of an X-Band GaN MMIC Amplifier

This paper deals with a new method for improving the power added efficiency of an amplifier by exploiting a blue-ray laser beam.The active device of the tested amplifier is an AlGaN/GaN HEMT on SiC whose dc performance has been prior analyzed with and without applying the laser beam. Thereafter, the effect of the optical radiation on the power added efficiency of the amplifier has been investigated and the relevant results have been reported.This contribution follows an intense experimental activity of the authors in this field and points out this beneficial feature of the optical radiation.