An Independently Biased 3-stack GaN HEMT Configuration for 5G Mobile Networks

In this paper, we propose an independently biased 3-stack GaN high electron mobility transistor (HEMT) configuration which can be utilized to design key amplifiers including microwave intermediate amplifier, low-noise amplifier and power amplifier of transceivers for 5G mobile networks. Both the small-signal and large-signal performance of the proposed configuration are investigated in comparison with other configurations including single stage, cascode and conventional 3-stack. The investigated results show that, thanks to the independently biased technique, the proposed configuration can offer better performance compared with other configurations. In term of small-signal performance, the proposed 3-stack configuration exhibits superior isolation, stability and maximum available gain. In addition, in term of large-signal performance it exhibits superior output power, power gain, efficiency and linearity over the other configurations. These superior performances are investigated at the 5G frequency bands. This makes the proposed circuit configuration to be an excellent candidate for designing important amplifiers of the 5G mobile networks.