Highly Linear 2-Stage Doherty Power Amplifier Using GaN MMIC

A power amplifier (PA) for a femto-cell base station should be highly efficient, linear and small. The efficiency for amplification of a high peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR) signal was improved by designing an asymmetric Doherty PA (DPA). The linearity was improved by applying third-order inter-modulation (IM3) cancellation method. A small size is achieved by designing the DPA using GaN MMIC process. The implemented 2-stage DPA delivers a power-added efficiency (PAE) of 38.6% and a gain of 33.4 dB with an average power of 34.2 dBm for a 7.2 dB PAPR 10 MHz bandwidth LTE signal at 2.14 GHz.