X‐band 100 W solid‐state power amplifier using a 0.25 μM GaN HEMT technology

This article describes the successful development and the performance of X‐band 100 W pulsed SSPA using a 25 W GaN‐on‐SiC high electron mobility transistor (HEMT). The GaN HEMT with a gate length of 0.25 µm and a total gate width of 8 mm were fabricated. The GaN HEMT provide a linear gain of 8 dB with 25 W output power operated at 30 V drain voltage in continuous wave (CW)‐operation with a power added efficiency of 43% at X‐band. It also shows a maximum output power density of 3 W/mm. The X‐band pulsed SSPA exhibited an output power of 100 W (50 dBm) with a power gain of 53 dB in a frequency range of 9.2–9.5 GHz. This 25 W GaN HEMT and X‐band 100 W pulsed SSPA are suitable for the radar systems and related applications in X‐band. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 57:212–216, 2015