Wideband, High-Efficiency GaN Power Amplifiers Utilizing a Non-Uniform Distributed Topology

A highly efficient, wideband power amplifier designed in GaN technology and utilizing a non-uniform distributed topology is reported in this paper. Measured results of an NGES fabricated NDPA demonstrate very high efficiency across the multi-octave bandwidth. Average CW output power and PAE across 2-15 GHz was 5.5 W and 25%, respectively. Maximum output power reached 6.9 W with 32% PAE at 7 GHz. A follow-on effort utilizing NGST´s mmW foundry process was initiated in an attempt to achieve even higher efficiencies while compacting the size of the chip.