23.5‐30 GHz gallium nitride on silicon power amplifier MMIC with 7.6‐12.4 W saturation output power.

A 23.5‐30 GHz power amplifier (PA) using 0.1‐μm gallium nitride (GaN) on silicon (Si) microwave monolithic integrated circuit (MMIC) process is presented in this work. The area of this PA MMIC is 3.7 mm × 3.2 mm (11.8 mm2). The measured linear gain is 16.4‐19.4 dB with input/output return loss over 10 dB. The measured saturation output power (Psat) is 7.6‐12.4 W under pulsed working condition. The drain voltage is 12 V and the total drain current is 2.6 A, which induce a power added efficiency (PAE) of 26%‐37%. The reported GaN on Si (GaN/Si) PA has high power, high efficiency and low cost. It is more suitable for massive commercial application compared with the traditional GaN on silicon‐carbon (GaN/SiC) PA. As we know, there has been no high output power GaN/Si PA as high as 10 W level reported in the 20‐30 GHz frequency region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]