A C-Band Two-Stage MMIC GaN Power Amplifier for Radar Applications

This paper presents the design and the experimental results of a C-Band Monolithic Microwave Integrated Circuit (MMIC) High Power Amplifier (HPA) based on a commercially available <tex xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">0.25\ μ m</tex> GaN-on-SiC technology and conceived for broadband Radar systems front-end integration. The HPA is based on a two-stage corporate topology and provides an output power higher than 22 W, with a power added efficiency and an associated gain greater than 40% and 24 dB, respectively, from 4 GHz to 5.2GHz. Furthermore, small signal measurements show significant input and output return losses better than −12 dB and −15 dB. The compact overall chip area is <tex xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">5× 4.8\ mm²</tex> .