Jean-Philippe Plaze

A tunable and reconfigurable active filter based on distributed structure concept

The filter presented in this article is an active band-pass filter which center frequency and bandwidth can be tuned. It is composed of channels inserted into a distributed structure, and the frequency agility is obtained by activating one or more of them. The concept is validated with measurements realized on a 3-channel prototype structure implemented in a PPH25 GaAs technology. This filter is tunable throughout the X and Ku bands. This first prototype yields encouraging results: the center frequency can be tuned between 9.7 and 14 GHz, with an average gain of 10 dB throughout this range. The filter occupies 13.5 mm2 of area and consumes 10.5 mA per active stage from a 4V supplying voltage. It is designed for wideband and agile receivers.

A 39.7 dBm and 18.5% PAE compact X to Ku band GaN Travelling Wave Amplifier

This article presents an 8GHz to 18GHz Travelling Wave Amplifier (TWA) averaging 39.7dBm of output power and 18.5% Power Added Efficiency (PAE). At 11 GHz, the TWA reaches a peak output power 40.4dBm and a peak PAE of 22%. The proposed architecture consists in the combination of two TWAs in parallel to increase output power. An innovative low loss compact power combiner is proposed to reduce the overall die size and keep high PAE. The amplifier presented here has the advantage to be very compact compared to similar MMICs High Power Amplifiers (HPA). An innovative design methodology based on a strong correlation between the amplifier and the combiner design is introduced.

A compact fully integrated GaN high power amplifier for C-X band applications

A fully integrated two-stage power amplifier is described for 4-6 W saturated output power over a 4GHz to 11GHz frequency range. The PA topology is chosen to obtain the best bandwidth, output power and Power Added Efficiency (PAE). The output stage is composed of two unit power cells and the power recombination is made by a stacked balun. The differential input of the power stage is provided by the first stage which realized a single to differentiel conversion. The PA is designed and fabricated in a 0.25μm GaN integrated technology from UMS foundry. Both simulations and measurement results are presented. This GaN PA provides 38 dBm of maximum saturated power and 18% to 31% peak PAE in the 4GHz to 11GHz frequency range.

A compact wideband high power amplifier in GaN technology with 47% peak PAE

This article presents a 4-6GHz power amplifier in a 0.25μm GaN integrated technology from UMS foundry. Two unit power cells are combined to increase output power. A new power combiner based on a stacked balun is presented. It has the advantage of occupying a much smaller area than a conventional one. The measured circuit exhibits a peak output power of 37 dBm together with a peak PAE of 47% at 4GHz.

A new topology of active bandstop filters in MMIC technology for wideband applications

A new topology of active bandstop filters is proposed in this paper. Two prototypes based on this topology have been implemented: the first one in GaN technology and the second one in GaAs technology. This topology allows reducing the 3 dB bandwidth in comparison with the only passive cell. The structure of both filters is a distributed structure. The first one allows a rejection of 65 dB at 2.9 GHz and the second one allows three states with a rejection around 45 dB at 2.3 GHz (state 1), at 2.47 GHz (state 2) and at 2.87 GHz (state 3). Both have associated passband from 1 GHz to 18 GHz.