Single 3-V Supply Operation GaAs Linear Power MESFET Amplifier for 5.8-GHz ISM Band Applications

Yoshiko Matsuo IKEDA
Masami NAGAOKA
Hirotsugu WAKIMOTO
Toshiki SESHITA
Masakatsu MIHARA
Misao YOSHIMURA
Yoshikazu TANABE
Keiji OYA
Yoshiaki KITAURA
Naotaka UCHITOMI

Publication
IEICE TRANSACTIONS on Electronics   Vol.E82-C    No.7    pp.1086-1091
Publication Date: 1999/07/25
Online ISSN: 
DOI: 
Print ISSN: 0916-8516
Type of Manuscript: Special Section PAPER (Special Issue on Microwave and Millimeter Wave Technology)
Category: Active Devices and Circuits
Keyword: 
gallium arsenide,  linear power amplifier,  single voltage supply,  MESFET,  ISM,  ETC,  

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Summary: 
A GaAs linear power amplifier operating with a single 3-V supply has been developed for 5.8-GHz ISM band applications. Two kinds of refractory WNx/W self-aligned gate MESFETs, a P-pocket MESFET and an asymmetric MESFET with a buried p-layer (BP- MESFET ) have been compared in terms of DC characteristics, small signal characteristics and power performances at 5.8 GHz. To obtain both high gain and high efficiency in the case of single 3-V supply operation at 5.8 GHz, we used a highly efficient and linear P-pocket MESFET for the output-stage power FET and a high-gain asymmetric MESFET with a buried p-layer (BP- MESFET ) for the driver-stage FET. The bias condition for 1-mm output-stage P-pocket MESFET was set near class-AB, so as to obtain sufficient output power with high PAE. The two-stage power amplifier MMIC module which can include all matching and biasing circuits, has been designed and fabricated. The amplifier exhibits a high power gain of 17.9 dB and a high power-added efficiency of 25.7% with a sufficient output power of 18.7 dBm at the 1-dB compression point. This self-aligned gate GaAs MESFET technology is promising for near-future 5.8-GHz applications, because of such good power performance and good mass-producibility.