A Three-Stage Wideband GaN PA for 5G mm-Wave Applications

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This brief presents a three-stage wideband power amplifier (PA) monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC) using 100 nm GaN-on-Si process. A synthesized matching strategy is introduced to achieve high efficiency and improve gain flatness over a wide operation bandwidth. For demonstration, one monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC) PA working from 24 to 29 GHz is designed, which covers the typical 5G millimeter-wave (mm-wave) bands. The measured output power reaches 30 dBm and the measured power added efficiency (PAE) exceeds 27.6% over the frequency range of 24 to 29 GHz. Meanwhile, the peak PAE of 40.6% and the peak power of 31.3 dBm are obtained at 27.5 GHz. Besides, the PA shows a measured gain of 18.7 to 21.2 dB from 25 to 30.5 GHz, with gain flatness of ±1.26dB.