A 2.6W and a 4W Output Power E-band GaN Power Amplifier with a Peak Efficiency of 22% and 15.3%

In this article, we report two high-power Gallium Nitride (GaN) power amplifiers (PAs) in E-band (71 - 86 GHz) with an output power of 2.6 W and 4 W, designed by incorporating an ultra low-loss on-chip integrated power combiner. The first one is a 3-stage 4-way (unit) PA, and the second one is an 8-way balanced amplifier designed using two unit PAs. The unit PA produces a saturated output power (PSAT) of 34.2 dBm (2.6 W), a peak power-added-efficiency (PAE) of 22%, and an associated power gain of 16.2 dB at 74 GHz. This performance was partly made possible by the design and optimization of the low-loss integrated power combiner, which minimized the losses in the matching networks. In addition, the balanced PA produces a PSAT of 36 dBm (4 W), with an associated PAE of 15.3% and a power gain of 15 dB at 80 GHz.