A FLAT GAIN/POWER RESPONSES 6-18 GHZ POWER AMPLIFIER MMIC WITH HIGH PAE BY USING TRANSFORMER NETWORKS

摘要

A two-stage power amplifier monolithic microwave integrated- circuit, operating between 6 and 18 GHz by implementing Al-GaAs/InGaAs/GaAs pseudomorphic high electron mobility transistors is presented. This devised power amplifier has demonstrated flat gain and power responses over a wide bandwidth by employing a novel design approach of combined prematched LC network and multisection impedance transformer network. Superior gain flatness of ±1.5 dB and power flatness of ±1.1 dBm over 6-18 GHz bandwidth, respectively, have been successfully achieved. With a dual-bias configuration, the power amplifier shows average small-signal gain of 13 dB, 2-dB gain compression power of 32.4 dBm and high power-added efficiency (PAE) of 24-34.5%. In additions, by using off-chip combiner techniques, the balanced power amplifier shows superior maximum output power of 36.5 dBm and PAE of 22-33.1%.