A Design Procedure for High-Efficiency and Compact-Size 5–10-W MMIC Power Amplifiers in GaAs pHEMT Technology

This paper presents the design procedure of monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC) high-power amplifiers (HPAs) as well as implementation of high-efficiency and compact-size HPAs in a 0.25- μm AlGaAs-InGaAs pHEMT technology. Presented design techniques used to extend bandwidth, improve efficiency, and reduce chip area of the HPAs are described in detail. The first HPA delivers 5 W of output power with 40% power-added efficiency (PAE) in the frequency band of 8.5-12.5 GHz, while providing 20 dB of small-signal gain. The second HPA delivers 8 W of output power with 35% PAE in the frequency band of 7.5-12 GHz, while maintaining a small-signal gain of 17.5 dB. The 8-W HPA chip area is 8.8 mm², which leads to the maximum power/area ratio of 1.14 W/mm². These are the lowest area and highest power/area ratio reported in GaAs HPAs operating within the same frequency band.