A fully integrated 5.9GHz RF frontend in 0.25um GaN-on-SiC for vehicle-to-vehicle applications

This paper presents the design of a high-efficiency and high-power RF frontend for the 802.11p standard, leveraging an embedded Tx/Rx switching scheme and a dual-bias power amplifier (PA) linearization technique. The fully integrated RF frontend is fabricated in 0.25um GaN-on-SiC technology and occupies 2mm × 1.2mm. In the Tx mode, the PA+Tx switch achieves 48.5% drain efficiency at 33.9dBm Psat with 28V supply. With OFDM-modulated signals, it achieves 30% average efficiency at 27.8dBm output power while meeting the -25dB EVM limit without predistortion. In the Rx mode, the LNA+Rx switch achieves +22dBm OIP3 with 8dB power gain at 12V supply. The fully integrated high-efficiency and linear RF frontend is demonstrated at high output power for vehicular communications for the first time.