A GaN HEMT Class F Amplifier at 2 GHz With > 80% PAE

Author

Schmelzer, David ; Long, Stephen I.

Author_Institution

California Univ., Santa Barbara

Volume

42

Issue

10

fYear

2007

Firstpage

2130

Lastpage

2136

Abstract

A Class F amplifier has been designed, fabricated, and tested using a GaN HEMT transistor and hybrid printed circuit board (PCB) packaging. The amplifier has a peak power-added efficiency (PAE) of 85% with an output power of 16.5 W. A gate-connected field-plated and a source-connected field-plated device of the same size and layout were measured in this topology. An output power and drain efficiency tradeoff, dependant on the drain impedance at the fundamental frequency due to the on-state resistance, is explored. A comparison between Class F and Inverse F, given particular operating conditions for this device, is made.

Keywords

amplifiers; high electron mobility transistors; printed circuits; wide band gap semiconductors; GaN - Interface; GaN HEMT transistor; HEMT class F amplifier; hybrid printed circuit board; peak power-added efficiency; power 16.5 W; Circuit testing; Electrical resistance measurement; Gallium nitride; HEMTs; Packaging; Power amplifiers; Power generation; Power measurement; Printed circuits; Size measurement; Class F; GaN HEMT; field plate; inverse F;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Solid-State Circuits, IEEE Journal of

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9200

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/JSSC.2007.904317

Filename

4317712