SBIR Phase I: Low-Cost High Efficiency Gallium-Nitride Power Amplifiers

The broader impact of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project is the significant advancement of U.S. wireless technology and infrastructure. The proposed research applies an innovative high-frequency radio-frequency design process to address emerging market needs that current products and design processes are unable to meet. The key feature of the design process proposed is its basis on technically rigorous transistor-centric measurement and model-based design processes and capabilities. This will serve present and next generation applications in legacy 3G/4G, emerging 5G, Public Safety and Wireless Charging markets. The proposed project uses an innovative high-efficiency design technique for solid state power amplifier (SSPA) integrated circuit (IC) products operating in the Ultra-High Frequency (UHF), S and C bands. These new IC's will utilize GaN-on-Si, which is far more cost-viable with high volume wafer sizes up to eight-inches in diameter as compared to the conventional GaN-on-SiC substrate material. Use of GaN-on-Si semiconductors, combined with our new design technique, will achieve efficiencies far beyond incumbent products through waveform engineering and time-domain load-pull methods. Anticipated technical results include GaN SSPA pallet amplifier products realized on the UHF, S and C bands by the end of Phase I, corresponding to the markets of wireless charging/RF-energy, public safety wireless networks and 5G communications. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.