mm-Wave High Efficiency, High Linearity GaN HEMT, GaAs and InP HBT Power Amplifiers

High-efficiency, high-linearity III-V mmWave power amplifiers (PAs) are critical for 5G, satellite communications, and radar applications. This talk summarizes advancements in III-V high-power technologies (GaN, GaAs and InP), from a device physics to a circuit topology perspective. Various efficiency-enhancement techniques are reviewed including harmonic tuning, voltage scaling, dynamic biasing, and load modulation architectures presenting a tradeoff study to simultaneously optimize power-added efficiency (PAE) and linearity. A systematic analysis is presented for GaN HEMTs, demonstrating state-of-the-art linearity and efficiency measured at 28GHz. Finally, this work also explores numerical methods for multivariate optimization to dynamically balance efficiency and linearity under varying operating conditions.