C-band single-chip GaN-FET power amplifiers with 60-W output power

A C-band high power amplifier was successfully developed with a single-chip GaN-based FET. At 4.0GHz, the fabricated 24-mm wide FET delivers 62 W and 156W under CW and pulsed operating conditions, respectively with a universal test fixture. The internal matching circuit was designed to be set up in a half-size package as compared to that for GaAs-based comparable-power-level amplifiers. The developed GaN-FET amplifier with 24-mm gate periphery delivers a 61W output power with 10.2dB linear gain and 42% power-added efficiency under CW operating conditions. To the best of our knowledge, this is the highest CW output power achieved from a single-chip FET power amplifier at C-band.