A 2-18 GHz 8-W Distributed GaN Power Amplifier Based on Input and Output Matching Network

A high efficiency non-uniform distributed power amplifier (NDPA) based on a 0.15 μm Gallium Nitride (GaN) HEMT process is proposed. The amplifier contains eight amplification cells and uses artificial transmission line theory to design the drain transmission line with decreasing characteristic impedance. To improve the efficiency of the amplifier, the amplifier is class AB biased and designed for optimum impedance matching using the matching networks. The electromagnetic simulation results of the designed amplifier show that the small signal gain of the amplifier is more than 12.6 dB and the saturated output power (P sat ) is more than 39.1 dBm with power-added efficiency (PAE) of larger than 28.5% in the frequency range of 2-18 GHz. The core area of the chip is 3.0×1.8 mm ² .