Characterization of broadband Monolithic Gallium Nitride distributed power amplifier using thermal imaging technique

Author

Xie, Chenggang

Author_Institution

Rockwell Collins, Inc., Cedar Rapids, IA, USA

fYear

2011

fDate

16-19 Jan. 2011

Firstpage

77

Lastpage

80

Abstract

A thermal imaging technique is used to characterize a Monolithic Gallium Nitride distributed power amplifier under DC and RF drive conditions. The temperature difference among the active cells (transistors) in distributed power amplifier is observed under RF drive conditions. It is believed that this non-uniform performance of individual cells in broadband distributed power amplifier results in its lower efficiency and lower power output comparing to narrowed band design. The experimentally observed results match with the results of large signal simulation. The technique can be used to optimize the distributed power amplifier design in the future.

Keywords

DC amplifiers; III-V semiconductors; distributed amplifiers; gallium compounds; high electron mobility transistors; infrared imaging; power amplifiers; radiofrequency amplifiers; wide band gap semiconductors; wideband amplifiers; DC drive; GaN; RF drive; active cells; broadband distributed power amplifier; thermal imaging technique; Drives; Gallium nitride; Imaging; Logic gates; MMICs; Power amplifiers; Radio frequency; Distributed power amplifier; GaN/Si HEMT; broadband power amplifier; thermal imaging;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Power Amplifiers for Wireless and Radio Applications (PAWR), 2011 IEEE Topical Conference on

Conference_Location

Phoenix, AZ

Print_ISBN

978-1-4244-8416-4

Electronic_ISBN

978-1-4244-8415-7

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/PAWR.2011.5725379

Filename

5725379