An effect of source harmonic tuning on linearity of power GaAs FET's under class AB operation is demonstrated. To improve efficiency of the power amplifiers, GaAs FET's are often poerated under class AB condition. Due to lower bias current, a class AB amplifier begins to show nonlinearity at lower input power comparing with class A operation, and as the power level of the input signal increases, however, an output power sometimes increases abruptly. From nonlinear circuit simulation, we have found this phenomenon is occurred by the distortion in gate RF voltage, and by suppressing even-order harmonics in the input circuit of GaAs FET, class AB amplifiers can be effectively linearized. In this paper, we show the condition for improving the linearity of power CaAs FET's under class AB operation by the source harmonic tuning technique.

An improved gate current model of GaAs FET's is presented. A conventional gate current and the reverse breakdown characteristics. Conseguentli, the model has been determined only by the forward current model fails to fit measured results in the reverse bias range, under which power amplifiers operate. The proposed model improves this problem and shows a great enhancement in accuracy throughout the whole operation range of FET's. The model consists of three diodes and a resistor, which are standerd elements implemented in commercially available circuit simulators, and thus it can easily be used for analyzing performances of various FET circits.