A 4-W Doherty Power Amplifier in GaN MMIC Technology for 15-GHz Applications

This letter presents an integrated Doherty power amplifier (PA) in 0.25-μm GaN on SiC process. Designed for 15-GHz point-to-point radios, the PA exhibits an output power of 36 ± 0.5 dBm between 13.7 and 15.3 GHz, while at 14.6 GHz, it shows a 6-dB output back-off efficiency higher than 28%. Modulated signal measurements applying digital predistortion demonstrate the compatibility of the amplifier with point-to-point radio requirements. To the best of our knowledge, this PA has the highest back-off efficiency for the 15-GHz band, and is the first GaN Doherty in the Ku-band.