International Journal of Engineering and Techniques - Volume 1 Issue 2, Mar - Apr 2015

RESEARCH ARTICLE

OPEN ACCESS

Design and Modeling of a Ku-Band Power Amplifier using GaNHEMT Technology for Defense and Aerospace Applications
Sarat K Kotamraju1, K.Ch.Sri Kavya2, A.Gnandeep Reddy3, G.Naveen Kumar3, K.Nandini Priyanka3,
P.V.Santosh3
1

Professor, Department of ECE, K L University, Guntur Dt., A.P., India

Associate Professor, Department of ECE, K L University, Guntur Dt., A.P., India
3
Students, B.Tech, Department of ECE, K L University, Guntur Dt., A.P., India

Abstract:
This paper reports on the design of an ultra wideband power amplifier using 0.25um GaN- HEMT
Technology device obtained from the Triquint Semiconductor. There is huge interest in transistors based on
Gallium Nitride in recent years due to its high breakdown voltage and its capability to operate in High frequency
applications. The load pull analysis is carried out to obtain both the required source and load impedances. The
power amplifier with over 10W output power and 42% power added efficiency in the frequency range of 3-5GHz
is presented in this paper. The PA is designed using a computer aided design tool called Advanced System Design
(ADS).ADS provide two different simulation opportunities. These are referred as schematic simulation and
electromagnetic simulation called Momentum. Schematic Simulations are performed on the proposed PA in this
paper.
Keywords:- GaN-HEMT Technology, Load pull analysis, Advanced system design(ADS)

Introduction:
The power Amplifier is one of the key components
in a wireless Transmitter system to amplify the low
power RF Signal to the required power level at the
antenna [1] and the Maximum output power of a
transmitter is determined by a power amplifier. To
provide the better and sufficient quality of service
for high user capacity, one needs a highly linear and
highly efficient power Amplifiers. These high
efficiency and high output power amplifiers are
desirable for defense and aerospace applications.
The power amplifiers are generally classified as
Trans
conductance and switch mode power
amplifiers. The Trans conductance power amplifiers
operate the transistor as a dependent current source.
While the switch mode power amplifiers operates
the transistor like a switch.

class power amplifiers the class A power amplifiers\

is the most linear amplifier but its power added
efficiency is 50% The switching mode PAs
include class D, class E and class F. They are
strongly non linear amplifiers which have a
maximum efficiency of 100% Due to the on and
off conditions in the switching mode power
amplifiers the voltage and current wave form and do
not overlap resulting which power dissipation will
be zero and the theoretical efficiency can reach
100% easily [2]
In this paper the RF Power GaN-HEMT device
model CG40010F manufactured by Cree is used
with an operating frequency of 15GHz.The
balanced amplifier configuration is used in this
paper.
GaN-HEMT Technology:

The trans conductance or the biasing class power

amplifiers includes class A, class AB, class B and
class C where the particular amplifier class is
defined by its DC bias condition and the conduction
angle analysis. Among the above mentioned biasing

ISSN: 2395-1303

Variety of power amplifiers are available in the

market like SiC (Silicon Carbide), GaAs Hetero
junction Bipolar Transistors (HBTs), Si-LDMOS
(Lateral diffused MOS), GaAs MESFETs. Of all
the various semiconductor materials and device

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International Journal of Engineering and Techniques - Volume 1 Issue 2, Mar - Apr 2015

technologies the GaN-HEMTs are most promising

for defense and aerospace applications due to its
high breakdown voltage of nearly 3.2ev and high
frequency of operation.[3] and In addition to this
GaN devices have some superior properties such as
high electron mobility(2DEG) (~1500Cm2/Vs) and
high electron density(~1x1013cm-2)[5]
When
compared to Si and GaAs devices GaN based
transistors offer high input and output impedances
with high output power density (>10x)[4].
The Comparative analysis of the GaN
properties with the other device technologies or
materials are summarized as shown in the table 1
below [5].
Characteristic

AlGaAs/

Feature

InGaAs

Electron
Mobility

8500

Sic

700

InAlAs/

AlGaN/

InGaAs

GaN

5400

1500-

at

Design of a Proposed Class AB Power Amplifier:

Design specifications
(Output power, Gain, Efficiency
,PAE)

Active device selection

Stability analysis

Load-pull for determining

optimum source and load
impedances

2200

300K
Critical

0.4

0.5

Breakdown

Harmonic matching &

Biasing network
synthesis

field(V/cm)
Band gap(Ev)

1.42

3.3

1.35

3.5

Peak electron

1.3

2.0

1.0

1.3

Velocity
Final PA
characterization

Table 1: Comparative analysis of the Device technologies

Balanced Amplifier Configuration:

The Balanced Amplifier Configuration is often used
in the Microwave Amplifiers. It was introduced by
Eisele, et al. [6] .Generally the Balanced amplifier
has two identical single ended Amplifiers (A1, A2)
that are connected in parallel by two 3-DB
quadrature couplers(900 Hybrid Couplers).These
couplers are operated as a power splitter and as a
power combiner at the input and the output
respectively. Both the input and the output matching
of the complete balanced amplifier structure do not
depend totally on the Individual amplifying cells as
long as both the cells are identical. This unique
property of balanced amplifiers has made it more
suitable for designing Power Amplifiers [7], Low
Noise Amplifiers [8] and the Broadband Amplifiers
[9].

ISSN: 2395-1303

Met design
specification
s
No

Yes
Efficient and desired amplifier
designed

Figure 1: Power Amplifier design flow

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International Journal of Engineering and Techniques - Volume 1 Issue 2, Mar - Apr 2015

Load Pull Investigation:

The fundamental source-pull /load-pull simulation
is used to find the optimum source and load
impedances that can maximize the efficiency of the
transistor across the band. The Load pull
simulations in this paper are carried out using ADS,
HB1 Tone_Load pull design guide with a large
signal model of a transistor obtained from Cree. The
Load Pull analysis will be performed first and later
source Pull analysis will be carried out.
The matching networks provide transformation
from source and load impedance to the standard
50ohm termination. These values are required to
provide desired gain, power added efficiency and
the output power.
Gain Stage:
The first stage of the power amplifier is the Gain
stage which is designed to provide most of the RF
Gain and to drive the second stage (Power Stage).
The different impedance values for input and output
matching networks is obtained for different input
power levels at the desired frequency
In this paper in the output matching network the
radial stub is used for achieving wider bandwidths.
By the proper design of matching networks using
the radial stub the 12Db Gain is achieved only at the
gain stage.

The Branch line coupler is used at the power stage

which is composed of two parallel arranged
identical amplifiers. The reason behind using this
approach is to achieve 3Db more power at the
output when compared to the single power stage
amplifier circuit. This approach is referred as a
Balanced Amplifier topology. Here the input power
to the power stage is divided by the means of the
above 3Db branch line coupler, amplified and then
combined by a second coupler.
Schematic Simulation Results:
The Schematic and the electromagnetic simulations
called Momentum can be performed on the
designed Power amplifier using ADS. The
schematic simulations are performed and presented
in this paper. Generally every stage in the power
amplifier which includes biasing network, Input and
output matching networks at gain stage and a 3DB
Branch line coupler at the power stage are designed
to produce the desired output power, gain and the
efficiency.
The simulation performance of the proposed power
amplifier is tabulated as follows
Frequency

Input

Output

Gain

Gain

Final

Power,

Power,

(Gain

(Power

Gain

Pout

Stage)

Stage)

43dBm

10.34

8.92

Pin

15GHz

24dBm

19.26

Table 2: Schematic Simulation Results

Monte-Carlo Simulation Results:

Monte-Carlo method is used to investigate the
affects of circuit component tolerances or the
manufacturing tolerances in a lumped element or
the distributed transmission line components.
In this paper 50 iterations were performed with
varying input power from 20dBm to 30dBm.
The performance of the designed power amplifier is
very sensitive to the component tolerances. Where
the variations degrade the gain from 19dBm to
13dBm. Which is less than 6dBm when compared
to the schematic simulation results.
Figure 2: Final Schematic with a Branch Line Coupler

ISSN: 2395-1303

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International Journal of Engineering and Techniques - Volume 1 Issue 2, Mar - Apr 2015

Conclusion:
The highly efficient two stage Ku-Band power
amplifier has been demonstrated in this paper. A
Peak power added efficiency of 40% is obtained at
15GHz frequency. The practical design issues are
also discussed with reference to Monte Carlo
simulation analysis. The tuning of harmonic
components was discarded in this work during the
design. By terminating the harmonic components up
to second fundamental frequency an increased PAE
can be achieved.

[9] chao-Hsiung Tseng and Chih-Lin Chang,

Improvement of return loss bandwidth of balanced
amplifier using meta material based quadrature
power splitters, IEEE Microwave and Wireless
Component Letters,Vol.18,No.4,April 2008,pp.269271.
[10] Ruchi,Sanjay Kumar Tomar, Meena
Mishra,Ashok Mittal Design and Simulation of a
GaN HEMT Based Power Amplifier,IJECT
Vol.5,Issue 4,Oct-Dec 2014.

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[7] L.Wu, et al, A Broadband
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