A High Efficiency and High Linearity 20 GHz InP HBT Monolithic Power Amplifier for Phased Array Applications

Author

Aust, Michael V. ; Sharma, Arvind K. ; Chau, Alex T. ; Gutierrez-Aitken, Augusto L.

Author_Institution

Northrop Grumman, Redondo Beach

fYear

2007

fDate

3-8 June 2007

Firstpage

809

Lastpage

812

Abstract

A high efficiency and high linearity monolithic power amplifier suitable for 20 GHz phased array applications is presented in this paper. The amplifier demonstrates a 17 (IB linear gain, a maximum CW power of 29.4 dBm (870 mW), and a 37.8% power-added-efficiency. Output power of 23.8 dBm with 15% efficiency is measured at 25 dB noise power ratio (NPR) value. For the power amplifier design, we have utilized a novel sinusoid-to-noise transform technique which uses CW simulations to predict NPR. Good agreement is observed between the simulated NPR values and measured data. The power amplifier has been able to achieve high power and efficiency with high linearity, demonstrating the suitability of the InGaAs/InAlAs/InP HBT production process for phased array applications.

Keywords

MMIC power amplifiers; antenna phased arrays; bipolar MMIC; gallium arsenide; heterojunction bipolar transistors; indium compounds; HBT production process; InGaAs-InAlAs-InP; frequency 20 GHz; heterojunction bipolar transistor; monolithic power amplifier design; phased array application; Gain; Heterojunction bipolar transistors; High power amplifiers; Indium phosphide; Linearity; Noise measurement; Phased arrays; Power amplifiers; Power generation; Power measurement; InP HBT; MMIC; NPR; high efficiency; high linearity; noise power ratio; power amplifier;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Microwave Symposium, 2007. IEEE/MTT-S International

Conference_Location

Honolulu, HI

ISSN

0149-645X

Print_ISBN

1-4244-0688-9

Electronic_ISBN

0149-645X

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/MWSYM.2007.380082

Filename

4263943