• JSTS:Journal of Semiconductor Technology and Science
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.139-142
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• 2008

An X-band MMIC power amplifier for radar application is developed using $0.25-{\mu}m$ gate length GaAs pHEMT technology. A bus-bar power combiner at output stage is used to minimize the combiner size and to simplify bias network. The fabricated power amplifier shows 38.75 dBm (7.5 Watt) Psat at 10 GHz. The chip size is $3.5\;mm{\times}3.9\;mm$.

• Proceedings of the IEEK Conference
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• 2006.06a
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• pp.553-554
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• 2006

In this paper, 77 GHz CPW power amplifier MMIC, which are consisted of a 2 stage driver stage and a power stage employing $8{\times}50um$ gate width, have been successfully developed by using 120nm $In_{0.4}AlAs/In_{0.35}GaAs$ Metamorphic high electron mobility transistors (MHEMTs). The devices show an extrinsic transconductance $g_m$ of 660 mS/mm, a maximum drain current of 700 mA/mm, and a gate drain breakdown voltage of -8.5 V. A cut-off frequency ($f_T$) of 172 GHz and a maximum oscillation frequency ($f_{max}$) of over 300 GHz are achieved. The fabricated PA exhibited high power gain of 20dB only with 3 stages. The output power is measured to be 12.5 dBm.

• The Journal of Korean Institute of Electromagnetic Engineering and Science
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• v.22 no.9
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• pp.897-903
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• 2011

This paper presents a highly linear power amplifier MMIC, having an output power level of about 1 watt, based on InGaP/GaAs hetero-junction bipolar transistor(HBT) technology for the 900 MHz band. The active bias circuit is applied to minimize the effect of temperature variation. Ballast resistors are optimized to prevent a current collapse and a thermal runaway. The fabricated power amplifier exhibited a gain of 17.6 dB, an output P1dB of 30 dBm, and a PAE of 44.9 % at an output P1dB from the one-tone excitation. It also showed a very high OIP3 of 47.3 dBm at an average output power of 20 dBm from the two-tone excitation.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Military Science and Technology
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.446-451
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• 2009

In this paper, we described the design and test results of a high output power amplifier MMIC developed by using 0.5um power pHEMT processes on a 6-inch GaAs wafer for the X-band T/R module application. In the MMIC design, we have used a simple on-chip gate active bias technology to compensate the threshold-voltage variation of pHEMT during the fabrication process and 16-to-1 power combining method to achieve the output power over 10watt. The fabricated chip has an output power over 12watts and maximum PAE of 32% over the frequency range of fo +/-750MHz.

• ETRI Journal
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• v.31 no.5
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• pp.598-600
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• 2009

A highly efficient and compactly integrated balanced power amplifier (PA) for W-CDMA handset applications is presented. To overcome the size limit of a typical balanced PA, a bulky input divider is integrated into a PA MMIC, and a complex output network is replaced with simple lumped-element networks. For efficiency improvement at the low output power level, one of the two amplifiers in parallel is deactivated and the other is partially operated with corresponding load impedance optimization. The implemented PA shows excellent average current consumption of 34.5 mA in urban and 56.3 mA in suburban environments, while exhibiting very good load-insensitivity under condition of VSWR=4:1.

• ETRI Journal
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• v.35 no.3
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• pp.546-549
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• 2013

A Ka-band 6-W high power microwave monolithic integrated circuit amplifier for use in a very small aperture terminal system requiring high linearity is designed and fabricated using commercial 0.15-${\mu}m$ GaAs pHEMT technology. This three-stage amplifier, with a chip size of 22.1 $mm^2$ can achieve a saturated output power of 6 W with a 21% power-added efficiency and 15-dB small signal gain over a frequency range of 28.5 GHz to 30.5 GHz. To obtain high linearity, the amplifier employs a class-A bias and demonstrates an output third-order intercept point of greater than 43.5 dBm over the above-mentioned frequency range.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Telematics and Electronics D
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• v.35D no.5
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• pp.1-10
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• 1998

A GaAs MMIC composed of VCO (voltage controlled oscillator) and mixer for PCS receiver has been developed using 1.mu.m ion implanted GaAs MESFET process. The VCO consists of a colpitts-type oscillator with a dielectric resonator and the circuit configuration of the mixer is a dual-gate type with an asymmetric combination of LO and RF FETs for the improvement of intermodulation characteristics. The common-source self-biasing is used in all circuits including a buffer amplifier and mixer, achieving a single power supply (3V) operation. The total power dissipation is 78mW. The VCO chip shows a phase noise of-99 dBc/Hz at 100KHz offset. The combined VCO/mixer chip shows a flat conversion gain of 2dB, the frequency-tuning factor of 80MHz/volts in the varacter bias ranging from 0.5V to 0.5V , and output IP3 of dBm at varactor bias of 0V. The fabricated chip size is 2.5mm X 1.4mm.

• The Journal of Korean Institute of Communications and Information Sciences
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• v.31 no.6A
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• pp.634-639
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• 2006

In this paper an MMIC 2-stage power amplifier is designed and fabricated for 5GHz wireless LAN applications using $0.5{\mu}m$ gate length PHEMT transistors. The PHEMT gate width is optimized in order to meet the linearity and efficiency of the MMIC power amplifier. The $0.5{\mu}m\times600{\mu}m$ PHEMT for the drive stage and $0.5{\mu}m\times3000{\mu}m$ PHEMT for the amplification stage are the optimized sizes to achieve more than 25dBc of third order IMD at the power level of 3dB back-off from the input P1dB and more than 22dBm output power under a supply voltage of 3.3V. The two-stage MMIC power amplifier is designed to be used for the both of HIPERLAN/2 and IEEE 802.11a because of its broadband characteristics. The fabricated PHEMT MMIC power amplifier exhibits a 20.1dB linear power gain, a maximum 22dBm output power, a 24% power added efficiency under 3.3V supply voltage. The input and output on-chip matching circuits are included on a chip of $1400\times1200{\mu}m^2$.

• Journal of electromagnetic engineering and science
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.18-23
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• 2006

In this paper, we demonstrate a fully integrated X-band image rejection down converter, which was developed using InGaP/GaAs HBT MMIC technology, consists of two single-balanced mixers, a differential buffer amplifier, a differential YCO, an LO quadratue generator, a three-stage polyphase filter, and a differential intermediate frequency(IF) amplifier. The X-band image rejection downconverter yields an image rejection ratio of over 25 dB, a conversion gain of over 2.5 dB, and an output-referred 1-dB compression power$(P_{1dB,OUT})$ of - 10 dBm. This downconverter achieves broadband image rejection characteristics over a frequency range of 1.1 GHz with a current consumption of 60 mA from a 3-V supply.

• Electronics and Telecommunications Trends
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• v.36 no.3
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• pp.53-64
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• 2021

As the 5G service market is expected to grow rapidly, the development of high-power, high-efficiency power amplifiers for the 5G communication infrastructure is indispensable. Gallium nitride (GaN) is attracting great interest as a key device in power devices and integrated circuits due to its wide bandgap, high carrier concentration, high electron mobility, and high-power saturation characteristics. In this study, we investigate the technology trends of Ka-band GaN radio frequency (RF) power devices and integrated circuits for operation in the millimeter-wave band of recent 5G mobile communication services. We review the characteristics of GaN RF high electron mobility transistor (HEMT) devices to implement power amplifiers operating at frequencies around 28 GHz and compare the technology of foreign companies with the device characteristics currently developed by the Electronics and Telecommunication Research Institute (ETRI). In addition, the characteristics of Ka-band GaN monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC) power amplifiers manufactured using various GaN HEMT device technologies are reviewed by comparing characteristics such as frequency band, output power, and output power density of integrated circuits. In addition, by comparing the performance of the power amplifier developed by ETRI, the current status and future direction of domestic GaN power devices and integrated circuit technology will be discussed.