A Novel GaN Power Amplifier Based on Quasi-Monolithic Microwave Integrated Circuits

作者

  • Letian Guo State Key Laboratory of ASIC and System, Fudan University, Shanghai 200438, China
  • Shunli Ma State Key Laboratory of ASIC and System, Fudan University, Shanghai 200438, China
  • Hou Yi Ding Department of Electronic Science and Technology Tongji University, Shanghai 201804, China
  • Mei Song Tong Department of Electronic Science and Technology Tongji University, Shanghai 201804, China

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https://doi.org/10.13052/2025.ACES.J.401006

关键词:

Gallium nitride (GaN), matching network, monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC), power amplifier (PA), ultra-wideband

摘要

In this paper, we propose a compact quasi-monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC) ultra-wideband gallium nitride (GaN) power amplifier (PA), highlighting its innovative design approach and the associated fabrication techniques aimed at enhancing integration and performance. The discrete transistor is manufactured by a 0.35-μm GaN high electron mobility transistor (HEMT) process. The input matching network employs a GaAs passive device process for compact and wideband flexible design. The output matching network employs a ceramic technology for high power and low insertion loss design. The discrete transistor is connected to the input and output network with gold bonding wires. The PA exhibited a gain of 11 dB, a saturation power of 48 dBm, and a peak power-added efficiency of 32.8%.

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Letian Guo received the B.S. degree in electrical engineering from Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, China, in 2012, the M.S. degree in electromagnetic field and microwave technology from the Northwest Institute of Nuclear Technology, Xi’an, China, in 2015, and the Ph.D. degree in microelectronics and solid-state electronics from Fudan University, Shanghai, China, in 2024, respectively. He has been with the Northwest Institute of Nuclear Technology since 2012. His current research interests include the microwave passive devices and phased array radar technology.

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Shunli Ma received the B.S. degree in microelectronics engineering from Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China, in 2011, and the Ph.D. degree in microelectronics engineering from Fudan University, Shanghai, China, in 2016, respectively. From 2012 to 2014, he was a Project Officer with Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. From 2016 to 2017, he worked in industry and designed 77-GHz FMCW PLL for automotive radar sensors. He received the title of Distinguished Designer for millimeter-wave (mm-wave) PLL design for automotive radars. He is currently an Assistant Professor with the State Key Laboratory of ASIC and System, Fudan University, Shanghai, China. He has published many papers related to high-performance mm-wave circuits on top conferences, including ESSCIRC, CICC,RFIC, ASSCC, and IMS. His research interests include 2D MoS2 chip design and mm-wave integrated-circuit design, including mm-wave imaging sensing, mm-wave PLL and high-speed sampler in ADC, and biomedical RF circuits for cancer detection. He received the 2015 ISSCC Student Research Preview and the ISSCC STGA Award.

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Hou Yi Ding received the B.S. degree and M.S. degree in microelectronic science and engineering from Tongji University, Shanghai, China, in 2022 and 2025, respectively. He is currently pursuing the Ph.D. degree in Tokyo University, Tokyo, Japan. His current research interests include the development of novel microwave devices and antennas.

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Mei Song Tong received the B.S. and M.S. degrees from Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China, and Ph.D. degree from Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona, USA, all in electrical engineering. He is currently a Humboldt Awardee Professor in the Chair of High-Frequency Engineering, Technical University of Munich, Munich, Germany, and is on leave from the Distinguished/Permanent Professor and Head of Department of Electronic Science and Technology, and Vice Dean of College of Microelectronics, Tongji University, Shanghai, China. He has also held an adjunct professorship at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois, USA, and an honorary professorship at the University of Hong Kong, China. He has published more than 700 papers in refereed journals and conference proceedings and co-authored eight books or book chapters. His research interests include electromagnetic field theory, antenna theory and technique, modeling and simulation of RF/microwave circuits and devices, interconnect and packaging analysis, inverse electromagnetic scattering for imaging, and computational electromagnetics.

Prof. Tong is a Fellow of the Electromagnetics Academy, Fellow of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS), and Senior Member (Commission B) of the USNC/URSI. He has been the chair of Shanghai Chapter since 2014 and the chair of SIGHT committee in 2018, respectively, in IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society. He has served as an associate editor or guest editor for several well-known international journals, including IEEE Antennas and Propagation Magazine, IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation, IEEE Transactions on Components, Packaging and Manufacturing Technology, International Journal of Numerical Modeling: Electronic Networks, Devices and Fields, Progress in Electromagnetics Research, and Journal of Electromagnetic Waves and Applications. He also frequently served as a session organizer/chair, technical program committee member/chair, and general chair for some prestigious international conferences. He was the recipient of a Visiting Professorship Award from Kyoto University, Japan, in 2012, and from University of Hong Kong, China, 2013. He advised and coauthored 15 papers that received the Best Student Paper Award from different international conferences. He was the recipient of the Travel Fellowship Award of USNC/URSI for the 31th General Assembly and Scientific Symposium (GASS) in 2014, Advance Award of Science and Technology of Shanghai Municipal Government in 2015, Fellowship Award of JSPS in 2016, Innovation Award of Universities’ Achievements of Ministry of Education of China in 2017, Innovation Achievement Award of Industry-Academia-Research Collaboration of China in 2019, “Jinqiao” Award of Technology Market Association of China in 2020, Baosteel Education Award of China in 2021, Carl Friedrich von Siemens Research Award of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation of Germany in 2023, and Technical Achievement Award of Applied Computational Electromagnetic Society (ACES) of USA in 2024. In 2018, he was selected as the Distinguished Lecturer (DL) of IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society for 2019–2022, and in 2025, he was selected to the Top 2% Scientists List for both Career-Long Impact and Single-Year Impact by ELSEVIER and Stanford University.

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已出版

2025-10-30

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[1]
L. . Guo, S. . Ma, H. Y. . Ding, 和 M. S. . Tong, 《A Novel GaN Power Amplifier Based on Quasi-Monolithic Microwave Integrated Circuits》, ACES Journal, 卷 40, 期 10, 页 1010–1020, 10月 2025.

期

2025: Vol 40 Iss 10

栏目

General Submission

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