A high-yield, 3—7-GHz, 0.5-W push-pull GaAs MMIC amplifier

A high-yield, 3-7-GHz, 0.5-W MMIC GaAs amplifier has been successfully designed and tested. The amplifier features small chip size (1.2 mm sq.), high gain (12 ± 1.5 dB), high power-added efficiency (20 percent), good RF yield (57 percent, and high tolerance to process variations. Packaged amplifiers were built with this chip for both the 2-6-GHz and the 5.9-6.4-GHz bands. Saturated output power of 25 dBm was achieved in the 2-6-GHZ band, and 27 dBm in the 5.9-6.4-GHz band. Infrared measurements show that the device has low FET channel temperatures when operated at full bias power over the full range of military ambient temperatures.