Darin M. Gritters

High power, high efficiency E-band GaN amplifier MMICs

An advanced high power, high frequency GaN semiconductor process has been used to design high performance E-band power amplifier MMICs demonstrating unprecedented output power, PAE and reliability. To the authors knowledge, these power amplifier designs demonstrate performance beyond previously published results for E-band power amplifier MMICs.

W- and G-Band Solid State Power Combining

Recent advances in semiconductor technologies have enabled the design and fabrication of mmW MMIC amplifiers with unprecedented gain, output power, and power added efficiency. However, individual mmW MMIC performance is ultimately limited by transistor size and on-die power combining losses. Therefore, in order to achieve significant solid state mmW amplifier power levels, low-loss off-die power combining is obviously necessary. This paper examines trade-offs between on-die, waveguide, and spatial power combining approaches. Several examples of mmW power combined amplifiers are discussed including 10W+ W-band GaN and 1W-class EHF InP amplifiers.

7kW GaN W-band transmitter

Recent advances in high power millimeter wave (mmW) Gallium Nitride (GaN) technology has enabled the development of a high power solid state W-band transmitter with an unprecedented 7kW Continuous Wave (CW) output power. The transmitter coherently sums a total of 8,192 1W+ GaN Power Amplifier (PA) Monolithic Microwave Integrated Circuits (MMICs) using spatial combining. This accomplishment represents a two-orders-of-magnitude improvement in W-band solid state power generation over previously published results.