This paper describes the efficiency-limiting factors resulting from transistor current source in the case of class-F and inverse class-F (F-1) operations under saturated region. We investigated the influence of knee voltage and gate-voltage clipping behaviors on drain efficiency as limiting factors for the current source. Numerical analysis using a simplified transistor model was carried out. As a result, we have demonstrated that the limiting factor for class-F-1 operation is the gate-diode conduction rather than knee voltage. On the other hand, class-F PA is restricted by the knee voltage effects. Furthermore, nonlinear measurements carried out on a GaN HEMT validate our analytical results.

A detailed investigation of DC and RF performance of AlGaN/GaN HEMT on 3C-SiC/low resistive silicon (LR-Si) substrate by introducing a thick GaN layer is reported in this paper. The hetero-epitaxial growth is achieved by metal organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) on a commercially prepared 6-inch LR-Si substrate via a 3C-SiC intermediate layer. The reported HEMT exhibited very low RF loss and thermally stable amplifier characteristics with the introduction of a thick GaN layer. The temperature-dependent small-signal and large-signal characteristics verified the effectiveness of the thick GaN layer on LR-Si, especially in reduction of RF loss even at high temperatures. In summary, a high potential of the reported device is confirmed for microwave applications.

This paper proposes a topology of high power, MHz-frequency, half-bridge resonant inverter ideal for low-loss Gallium Nitride high electron mobility transistor (GaN-HEMT). General GaN-HEMTs have drawback of low drain-source breakdown voltage. This property has prevented conventional high-frequency series resonant inverters from delivering high power to high resistance loads such as 50Ω, which is typically used in radio frequency (RF) systems. High resistance load causes hard-switching also and reduction of power efficiency. The proposed topology overcomes these difficulties by utilizing a proposed ‘L-S network’. This network is effective combination of a simple impedance converter and a series resonator. The proposed topology provides not only high power for high resistance load but also arbitrary design of output wattage depending on impedance conversion design. In addition, the current through the series resonator is low in the L-S network. Hence, this series resonator can be designed specifically for harmonic suppression with relatively high quality-factor and zero reactance. Low-distortion sinusoidal 3kW output is verified in the proposed inverter at 13.56MHz by computer simulations. Further, 99.4% high efficiency is achieved in the power circuit in 471W experimental prototype.

In this paper, the high-power high-efficiency asymmetric Doherty power amplifiers based on high-voltage GaN HEMT devices with internal input matching for base station applications are proposed and described. For a three-way 1:2 asymmetric Doherty structures, an exceptionally high output power of 1 kW with a peak efficiency of 83% and a linear flat power gain of about 15 dB was achieved in a frequency band of 2.11-2.17 GHz, whereas an output power of 59.5 dBm with a peak efficiency of 78% and linear power gain of 12 dB and an output power of 59.2 dBm with a peak efficiency of 65% and a linear power gain of 13 dB were obtained across 1.8-2.2 GHz. To provide a high-efficiency broadband operation, the concept of inverted Doherty structure is applied and described in detail. By using a high-power broadband inverted Doherty amplifier architecture with a 2×120-W GaN HEMT transistor, a saturated power of greater than 54 dBm, a linear power gain of greater than 13 dB and a drain efficiency of greater than 50% at 7-dB power backoff in a frequency bandwidth of 1.8-2.7 GHz were obtained.

This paper presents recent progress on high frequency and wide bandwidth GaN high power amplifiers (PAs) that are usable for high-data-rate wireless communications and modern radar systems. The key devices and design techniques for PA are described in this paper. The results of the state-of-the art GaN PAs for microwave to millimeter-wave applications and design methodology for ultra-wideband GaN PAs are shown. In order to realize high output power density, InAlGaN/GaN HEMTs were employed. An output power density of 14.8 W/mm in S-band was achieved which is 1.5 times higher than that of the conventional AlGaN/GaN HEMTs. This technique was applied to the millimeter-wave GaN PAs, and a measured power density at 96 GHz was 3 W/mm. The modified Angelov model was employed for a millimeter-wave design. W-band GaN MMIC achieved the maximum Pout of 1.15 W under CW operation. The PA with Lange coupler achieved 2.6 W at 94 GHz. The authors also developed a wideband PA. A power combiner with an impedance transformation function based on the transmission line transformer (TLT) technique was adopted for the wideband PA design. The fabricated PA exhibited an average Pout of 233 W, an average PAE of 42 %, in the frequency range of 0.5 GHz to 2.1 GHz.

A practical Doherty amplifier design method has been developed based on an asymmetric configuration scheme. By embedding a load modulation function into matching circuits of a carrier amplifier (CA) and a peaking amplifier (PA) in the Doherty amplifier, an issue of the Doherty amplifier design is boiled down to the CA and PA matching circuit design. The method can be applied to transistors with unknown parasitic elements if optimum termination impedance conditions for the transistor are obtained from a source-/load-pull technique in simulation or measurement. The design method was applied to GaN HEMT Doherty amplifier MMICs. The fabricated 4.5-GHz-band GaN HEMT Doherty amplifier MMIC exhibited a maximum drain efficiency of 66% and a maximum power-added efficiency (PAE) of 62% at 4.1GHz, with a saturation output power of 36dBm. In addition, PAE of 50% was achieved at 4.1GHz on a 7.2-dB output back-off (OBO) condition. The fabricated 8.5-GHz-band GaN HEMT Doherty amplifier MMIC exhibited a maximum drain efficiency of 53% and a maximum PAE of 44% at 8.6GHz, with a saturation output power of 36dBm. In addition, PAE of 35% was achieved at 8.6GHz on a 6.7-dB (OBO). And, the fabricated 12-GHz-band GaN HEMT Doherty amplifier MMIC exhibited a maximum drain efficiency of 57% and a maximum PAE of 52% at 12.4GHz, with a saturation output power of 34dBm. In addition, PAE of 32% was achieved at 12.4GHz on a 9.5-dB (OBO) condition.

In this study, simulations are performed to design an optimal device for thinning the GaN channel layer on the semi-insulating layer in HEMT. When the gate length is 50nm, the thickness of the undoped channel must be thinner than 300nm to observe the off state. When the GaN channel layer is an Fe-doped, an on/off ratio of ~300 can be achieved even with a gate length of 25nm, although the transconductance is slightly reduced.

A new design approach of broadband RF power amplifier (PA) is introduced in this work with combination of large signal X-parameter and Real-Frequency Technique (RFT). A theoretical analysis of large signal X-parameter is revisited, and a simplification method is introduced to determine the optimum large signal impedances of a Gallium Nitride HEMT (GaN HEMT) device. With the optimum impedance extraction over the wide frequency range (0.3 to 2.0 GHz), a wideband matching network is constructed employing RFT and the final design is implemented with practical mixed-lumped elements. The prototype broadband RF PA demonstrates an output power of 40 dBm. The average drain efficiency of the PA is found to be more than 60%; while exhibiting acceptable flat gain performance (12±0.25 dB) over the frequency band of (0.3-2.0 GHz). The PA designed using the proposed approach yields in small form factor and relatively lower production cost over those of similar PAs designed with the classical methods. It is expected that the newly proposed design method will be utilized to construct power amplifiers for radio communications applications.

A 4.5-/4.9-GHz band-selective GaN HEMT high-efficiency power amplifier has been designed and evaluated for next-generation wireless communication systems. An optimum termination impedance for each high-efficiency operation band was changed by using PIN diodes inserted into a harmonic treatment circuit at the output side. In order to minimize the influence of the insertion loss of the PIN diodes, an additional line is arranged in parallel with the open-ended stub used for second harmonic treatment, and the line and stub are connected with the PIN diodes to change the effective characteristic impedance. The fabricated GaN HEMT amplifier achieved a maximum power-added efficiency of 57% and 66% and a maximum drain efficiency of 62% and 70% at 4.6 and 5.0GHz, respectively, with a saturated output power of 38dBm, for each switched condition.

Hard-type oscillators for ultrahigh frequency applications were proposed based on resonant tunneling diodes (RTDs) and a HEMT trigger circuit. The hard-type oscillators initiate oscillation only after external excitation. This is advantageous for suppressing the spurious oscillation in the bias line, which is one of the most significant problems in the RTD oscillators. We first investigated a series-connected circuit of a resistor and an RTD for constructing a hard-type oscillator. We carried out circuit simulation using the practical device parameters. It was demonstrated that the stable oscillation can be obtained for such oscillators. Next, we proposed to use series-connected RTDs for the gain block of the hard-type oscillators. The series circuits of RTDs show the negative differential resistance in very narrow regions, or no regions at all, which makes impossible to use such circuits for the conventional soft-type oscillators. However, with the trigger circuit, they can be used for hard-type oscillators. We confirmed the oscillation and the bias stability of these oscillators, and also demonstrated that the voltage swing can be easily increased by increasing the number of RTDs connected in series. This is promising method to overcome the power restriction of the RTD oscillators.

We report on robust and low-power-consumption InP- and GaN-HEMT Low-Noise-Amplifiers (LNAs) operating in Q-band frequency range. A multi-stage common-gate (CG) amplifier with current reuse topology was used. To improve the survivability of the CG amplifier, we introduced a feedback resistor at the gate bias feed. The design technique was adapted to InP- and GaN-HEMT LNAs. The 75nm gate length InP HEMT LNA exhibited a gain of 18dB and a noise figure (NF) of 3dB from 33 to 50GHz. The DC power consumption was 16mW. The Robustness of the InP HEMT LNA was tested by injecting a millimeter-wave input power of 13dBm for 10 minutes. No degradation in a small signal gain was observed. The fabricated 0.12µm gate length GaN HEMT LNA exhibited a gain of 15dB and an NF of 3.2dB from 35 to 42GHz. The DC power consumption was 280mW. The LNA survived until an input power of 28dBm.

In this paper, an accurate experimental noise model to improve the EEHEMT nonlinear model using the Verilog-A language in Agilent ADS is presented for the first time. The present EEHEMT model adopts channel noise to model the noise behavior of pseudomorphic high electron mobility transistor (pHEMT). To enhance the accuracy of the EEHEMT noise model, we add two extra noise sources: gate shot noise and induced gate noise current. Here we demonstrate the power spectral density of the channel noise Sid and gate noise Sig versus gate-source voltage for 0.25 µm pHEMT devices. Additionally, the related noise source parameters, i.e., P, R, and C are presented. Finally, we compare four noise parameters between the simulation and model, and the agreement between the measurement and simulation results shows that this proposed approach is dependable and accurate.

The major task in compact modeling for high power devices is to predict the switching waveform accurately because it determines the energy loss of circuits. Device capacitance mainly determines the switching characteristics, which makes accurate capacitance modeling inevitable. This paper presents a newly developed compact model HiSIM-GaN [Hiroshima University STARC IGFET Model for Gallium-Nitride-based High Electron Mobility Transistors (GaN-HEMTs)], where the focus is given on the accurate modeling of the field-plate (FP), which is introduced to delocalize the electric-field peak that occurs at the electrode edge. We demonstrate that the proposed model reproduces capacitance measurements of a GaN-HEMT accurately without fitting parameters. Furthermore, the influence of the field plate on the studied circuit performance is analyzed.

A broadband miniature GaAs p-HEMT MMIC Doherty power amplifier (DPA) with a series connected load operating at the C band has been developed. To minimize the circuit size, a lumped-element load modulation circuit without a quarter wavelength transmission line has been introduced to MMIC technology. For both an input and output power divider/combiner circuit, two baluns are used to reduce the length of the phase adjuster circuit without causing instability. An inherent DPA instability problem related with the degenerated sub-harmonic frequency has been analyzed with the S and T parameters of DPA circuit components, resulting in a novel stabilized circuit. The developed stabilized DPA delivered a maximum power added efficiency (PAE) of 49% and a maximum output power of 23.4dBm. Greater than 40% PAE below a 10-dB input back-off from a saturated output power is obtained for a frequency range of 6.1 to 6.8GHz.

The high performance GaN power amplifier circuit operating at 7.1 GHz was demonstrated for potential use such as in a space ground station. First, the GaN HEMT chips were investigated for the high power amplifier circuit design. And next, the designed amplifier circuits matching with the load and source impedance of the non-linear models were fabricated. From measurement, the AB-class power amplifier circuit with the four-cell chip showed the power added efficiency (PAE) of 42.6% and output power with 41.7dBm at -3dB gain compression. Finally, the good performance of the power amplifier was confirmed in a 20-way radial power combiner with the PAE of 17.4% and output power of 52.6 dBm at -3dB gain compression.

We developed a 300-GHz high gain amplifier MMIC in 75-nm InP high electron mobility transistor technology. We approached the issues with accurate characterization of devices to design the amplifier. The on-wafer through-reflect-line calibration technique was used to obtain accurate transistor characteristics. To increase measurement accuracy, a highly isolated structure was used for on-wafer calibration standards. The common source amplifier topology was used for achieving high gain amplification. The implemented amplifier MMIC exhibited a gain of over 25 dB in the 280-310-GHz frequency band.

A wide-bandwidth fundamental mixer operating at a frequency above 110GHz for precise spectrum analysis was developed using the InP HEMT technology. A single-ended resistive mixer was adopted for the mixer circuit. An IF amplifier and LO buffer amplifier were also developed and integrated into the mixer chip. As for packaging into a metal block module, a flip-chip bonding technique was introduced. Compared to face-up mounting with wire connections, flip-chip bonding exhibited good frequency flatness in signal loss. The mixer module with a built-in IF amplifier achieved a conversion gain of 5dB at an RF frequency of 135GHz and a 3-dB bandwidth of 35GHz. The mixer module with an LO buffer amplifier operated well even at an LO power of -20dBm.

Gallium nitride high electron mobility transistors (GaN HEMTs) were developed for millimeter-wave high power amplifier applications. The device with a gate length of 80 nm and an InAlN barrier layer exhibited high drain current of more than 1.2 A/mm and high breakdown voltage of 73,V. A cut-off frequency $ extrm{f}_{ extrm{T}}$ of 113,GHz and maximum oscillation frequency $ extrm{f}_{ extrm{max}}$ of 230,GHz were achieved. The output power density reached 1 W/mm with a linear gain of 6.4,dB at load-pull measurements at 90,GHz. And we extracted equivalent circuit model parameters of the millimeter-wave InAlN/GaN HEMT and showed that the model was useful in simulating the millimeter-wave power performance. Also, we report a preliminary constant bias stress test result.

This paper presents an experimental investigation on the RF characteristics of a 3W-class cryogenically-cooled receiver amplifier employing a gallium-nitride high electron mobility transistor (GaN HEMT) with a blue light for mobile base stations. In general, a cryogenically-cooled receiver amplifier using a GaN HEMT exhibits unstable DC characteristics similar to those found in the current collapse phenomenon because the GaN HEMT loses thermal energy at cryogenic temperatures. The fabricated cryogenically-cooled receiver amplifier achieves stable DC characteristics by injecting blue light into the GaN HEMT instead of thermal energy. Experimental results show that the amplifier achieves fine stable DC characteristics for deviation in the drain-source current from 42% to 5% and RF characteristics for a maximum power added efficiency from 58% to 68% without and with the blue light at 60,K. The fabricated amplifier is effective in reducing the power consumption at cryogenic temperatures. To the best of our knowledge, this paper is the first report regarding RF characteristics of a cryogenically-cooled receiver amplifier using a blue light for mobile base stations.

This paper investigates space and polarization multiplexing for multichannel transmission in a 120-GHz band wireless link system. The 120-GHz-band wireless equipment employs Cassegrain antennas with a gain of about 49dBi and cross-polar discrimination of 23dB. When each of two 120-GHz wireless links transmits a 10-Gbit/s data signal in the same direction over a distance of 800m, a bit error rate (BER) of below 10-12 is obtained when the receivers are set 30m apart. When forward error correction and polarization multiplexing are used for each wireless link, we can set two wireless links within 1m of each other and obtain a BER below 10-12. Moreover, we have experimentally shown that the rain attenuation of V- and H-polarization 120-GHz-band signal is almost the same.