A 2-18 GHz 13.5-W Distributed GaN HPA MMIC Based on Stacked and Tapering Techniques

In this paper, the design and analysis of a 2.0 to 18.0 GHz distributed high-power amplifier (DHPA) monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC) on 150-nm GaN-SiC HEMT process has been presented. By employing 8-cell 2-level-stacked architecture, ultra-wide bandwidth and good power performance are achieved simultaneously. To improve the PAE and gain further, non-uniform distribution, tapering drain-artificial transmission line (D-ATMLs), and inductive gain peaking structures are also incorporated. The proposed HPA MMIC is a fully integrated one with all the necessary components on-chip. Simulated with continuous-wave (CW) excitations, the resulting performance under 35-V VDD power supply shows 18.5 ~ 16.0 dB small-signal gain, 13.5-7.5 W output power, and 38.2-19.5 % power-added efficiency (PAE) over more than 16 GHz frequency band. The die size of the proposed HPA core is around 4.8 × 1.8 mm which is very compact to be implanted into future broadband systems and applications. © 2021 IEEE