A 6-16 GHz GaN Distributed Power Amplifier MMIC Using Self-bias

The self-biasing circuit through a feedback resistor is applied to a gallium nitride (GaN) distributed power amplifier (PA) monolithic microwave circuit (MMIC). The self-biasing circuit is a useful scheme for biasing depletion-mode compound semiconductor devices with a negative gate bias voltage, and is widely used for common source amplifiers. However, the self-biasing circuit is rarely used for PAs, because the large DC power dissipation of the feedback resistor results in the degradation of output power and power efficiency. In this study, the feasibility of applying a self-biasing circuit through a feedback resistor to a GaN PA MMIC is examined by using the high operation voltage of GaN high-electron mobility transistors. The measured results of the proposed GaN PA are the average output power of 41.1 dBm and the average power added efficiency of 12.2% over the 6-16 GHz band.