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In this letter, a novel compact on-chip output matching network to achieve harmonic impedance matching is proposed. With the proposed matching network, a highly efficient GaN monolithic microwave circuit power amplifier (PA) is designed for 5-GHz wireless local area network 802.11ac application. The implemented PA achieves a maximum power-added efficiency (PAE) of 49.5%-61.3% over the frequency band from 4.9 to 5.9 GHz, with a saturated output power (Psat) of 34.6-36.1 dBm. When tested with 802.11ac VHT80 MCS9 (80 MHz, 256-quadratic -amplitude modulation) signal with 11.3-dB peak-to-average power ratio, the PA achieves an average output power of 23.7-26.3 dBm, with a PAE of 24.9%-30.9%, while meeting the standard error vector magnitude specification of -32 dB. Accepted version

This letter presents a fully integrated Class-J GaN monolithic microwave circuit power amplifier (PA), which is fabricated in Woolfspeed 0.25- $\mu \text{m}$ GaN-on-SiC technology. This PA is the first published design for the emerging IEEE 802.11ax application in the literature. When tested with 80-MHz 256-quadratic-amplitude modulation 802.11ax signal with 11.25-dB peak-to-average power ratio, the PA delivers average output power of 27.3–30.3 dBm from 4.9 to 5.9 GHz, with power-added efficiency of 16.7% to 27.3%, while meeting the standard specification of error vector magnitude below −32 dB.