An X-band GaN PA MMIC for Phased Array Radar Applications

Active phased array radars require numerous Power Amplifiers (PAs), which must be small, efficient and low-cost. This paper describes an X-band PA MMIC that covers 9 to 11.5GHz and satisfies these requirements. It has an output power of 7W (38.5dBm) from a 29dBm drive with a Power Added Efficiency (PAE) of 42%. The design was realized on the 0.25µm gate length GaN on SiC process of UMS (GH25) using Keysight’s ADS 2015. The die size is just 1.5mm x 2mm, which means around 2,300 PAs can be fabricated on a single 4” diameter wafer.