Design of 40-W AlGaN/GaN MMIC High Power Amplifiers for C-Band SAR Applications

作者：Florian Corrado^*; Cignani Rafael; Santarelli Alberto; Filicori Fabio

来源：IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques, 2013, 61(12): 4492-4504.

DOI：10.1109/TMTT.2013.2286109

• AlGaN/GaN HEMT
• high-efficiency power amplifiers
• high power amplifier (HPA)
• monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC)
• synthetic aperture radars (SARs)

Two C-band monolithic high power amplifiers (HPAs) have been designed and implemented exploiting a 0.25-mu m AlGaN/GaN HEMT process on an SiC substrate. The circuits have been designed for use in transmit/recevie modules of satellite synthetic aperture radar antennas for Earth observation. The design was accurately focused on the HEMTs%26apos; electrical and thermal working conditions in order to guarantee the reliable operation required by space applications. The HPAs operate in pulsed conditions with typical pulsewidth of 50 mu s and 10% duty cycle: in that regime, the circuits deliver about 40 W with more than 21-dB associated gain and 40% to 45% power-added efficiency in the 5-5.8-GHz band. The achieved performance clearly demonstrates the very high potentiality of this technology for the replacement of GaAs-based HPAs in new generations of this type of systems.

• 出版日期2013-12