A low-distortion 230 W GaAs power FP-HFET operated at 22 V for cellular base station

Abstract

This paper describes a successfully developed L-band depletion-mode GaAs-based heterostructure FET (HFET) with a field-modulating plate (FP) for cellular base station applications. The FP-HFET power amplifier, consisting of four 86.4 mm gate-width chips, delivered a 53.6 dBm (230 W) output power at 2.1 GHz with 11 dB linear gain and 42% PAE operated at a drain bias of 22 V. A low adjacent channel leakage power ratio (ACPR) of -35 dBc with 25% PAE was obtained at an output power of 46 dBm, indicating superior linearity characteristics under elevated drain bias conditions. The device also exhibited a record saturated power density of 0.67 W/mm.