Design of GaN based RF Power Amplifiers for Space Application

Abstract

Rapid growth in communication applications leads to the necessity of the integration of complicated circuits into one single chip. It is expected to be low-cost, small and light-weight. In order to achieve the final goal of system on chip (SoC), the design of front end is very crucial. As the operating speed of the devices are getting faster and more power is being consumed. Criticality lies there for the space application. Being the most power hungry component of the RF front end, RF Power Amplifier (RFPA) is one of the critical building blocks in low power SoC integration. An increased design research has been done to remove the bottleneck for development. Nowadays more and more satellites have been launched to satisfy the requirement for navigation, data communication, remote sensing etc. Until now Travelling Wave Tube Amplifiers (TWTA) have been placed for power amplification but Solid State Power Amplifier (SSPA) have better lifetime and reliability. With the great advancement in semiconductor technology, the newer GaN pHEMT devices are capable enough to mitigate the challenge. In this dissertation, research and investigation on the performance of GaN based power amplifiers have been proposed. The Power Added Efficiency, Output Power, Gain, Stability and S-Parameters calculation for Class-B configuration has been included in this thesis. Moreover, the inclusion of results on Class-F configuration using the platform Agilent's Advanced Design Software (ADS). The realization of both the configuration is also done.