A LTCC power amplifier for a Ku-band transmitter module

Author

Ji, Jianhua ; Li, Yinqiao ; Zhou, Jianming ; Fei, Yuanchun

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electron. Eng., Beijing Inst. of Technol., Beijing, China

fYear

2009

fDate

27-29 Oct. 2009

Firstpage

319

Lastpage

322

Abstract

A power amplifier utilizing multilayer Low temperature co-fired ceramic (LTCC) substrates for a Ku-band transmitter module is presented. The disposition of the thru-plane thermal vias for heat dissipation is analyzed and the heat spreading capability of the entire substrate is calculated. A full passive model of the power amplifier is proposed and simulation in a full-wave EM solver is performed. The power amplifier shows a measured gain of 30.4 dB and a 1 dB compression output power of 28.2 dBm at 16 GHz. Good agreement between the simulated and measured results was achieved. The measured results validate the accuracy of the passive model. RF-unfriendly DC lines for the power amplifier in a transmitter module are proposed for future use.

Keywords

ceramics; microwave power amplifiers; transmitters; Ku-band transmitter module; LTCC power amplifier; RF-unfriendly DC lines; frequency 16 GHz; full-wave EM solver; gain 30.4 dB; heat dissipation; heat spreading; multilayer low temperature co-fired ceramic substrates; passive model; thru-plane thermal vias disposition; Ceramics; Circuit simulation; Integrated circuit technology; Nonhomogeneous media; Power amplifiers; Power measurement; Temperature; Thermal conductivity; Thermal resistance; Transmitters; DC lines; LTCC; RF- unfriendly; heat dissipation; power amplifier; via arrays;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Microwave, Antenna, Propagation and EMC Technologies for Wireless Communications, 2009 3rd IEEE International Symposium on

Conference_Location

Beijing

Print_ISBN

978-1-4244-4076-4

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/MAPE.2009.5355878

Filename

5355878