L-band High-Power GaN-on-Si HEMT Amplifier

In the paper RF performances and thermal features of GaN HEMTs grown on Si substrate for the design of microwave high-power amplifiers have been briefly presented referring also to the state of the art of the dominant GaN-on-SiC HEMT technology. As GaN-on-Si HEMT application examples driver and final stage amplifiers with high-voltage NPT2018 and NPT2022 transistors made by MACOM were designed and experimentally verified. The amplifiers operate over a 1.2 GHz to 1.4 GHz frequency range with saturated output power nearly 42 dBm and 51 dBm, respectively, at the power added efficiency more than 60%.