100 W GaN HEMT power amplifier module with > 60% efficiency over 100–1000 MHz bandwidth

Abstract

We have demonstrated a decade bandwidth 100 W GaN HEMT power amplifier module with 15.5-18.6 dB gain, 104-121 W CW output power and 61.4-76.6 % drain efficiency over the 100-1000 MHz band. The 2 × 2 inch compact power amplifier module combines four 30 W lossy matched broadband GaN HEMT PAs packaged in a ceramic SO8 package. Each of the 4 devices is fully matched to 50 Ω and obtains 30.8-35.7 W with 68.6-79.6 % drain efficiency over the band. The packaged amplifiers contain a GaN on SiC device operating at 48V drain voltage, alongside GaAs integrated passive matching circuitry. The four devices are combined using a broadband low loss coaxial balun. We believe this combination of output power, bandwidth and efficiency is the best reported to date. These amplifiers are targeted for use in multi-band public mobile radios and for instrumentation applications.