Gallium Nitride Monolithic Microwave Integrated Circuit Power Amplifier

Current SATCOM On The Move (OTM) amplifiers have fairly low Power Added Efficiency, about 15%. This results in high operating temperatures as well as high Size Weight and Power requirements. A high power amplifier using GaN can result in a 3-10X reduction in the size of the power amplifier and an increase of 2X in power added efficiency. Current solutions rely on gallium arsenide (GaAs) or indium phosphide (InP) for the high power amplifier (HPA). This is due to the high transition frequency (Ft) of these materials. However, the power density of these materials requires the use large device sizes to achieve a desired output power. This results in less efficient HPAs. As a result, these devices do not meet requirements. The goal of this program is to prove the feasibility of a Ka Band GaN based high power amplifier for SatCom on the Move systems. MMICMAN will use its extensive experience in the design and manufacture of GaN-based MMIC HPAs at S and X-Band to facilitate the design in this proposal.