Proceedings of the 11th European Microwave Integrated Circuits Conference

A 1-8GHz Gallium Nitride Distributed Power

Amplifier MMIC Utilizing a Trifilar Transformer
Charles F. Campbell, Michael D. Roberg, Jonathan Fain and Sabyasachi Nayak
Infrastructure and Defense Products
Qorvo
Richardson, TX, USA

Abstract—This paper describes the design and measured performance transistor cell layouts with individual source
performance of a 1-8GHz power amplifier MMIC fabricated grounds.
with a 0.15um Gallium Nitride (GaN) process technology. The
process features a 100um thick Silicon Carbide (SiC) substrate
and compact transistor layouts with individual source grounding
III. CIRCUIT DESIGN
vias (ISV). The design utilizes a non-uniform distributed power Design goals for the power amplifier MMIC are as follows;
amplifier (NDPA) topology with a novel trifilar connected output 1-8GHz bandwidth, greater than 25dB small signal gain, 10W
transformer. The 2-stage amplifier demonstrates 9.3-13.1W of saturated output power and power added efficiency (PAE)
output power over a 1-8GHz bandwidth with greater than 29% exceeding 30%. A small signal gain goal in excess of 25dB
associated power added efficiency (PAE). will require at least 2 amplification stages. To meet the
bandwidth requirement, the non-uniform distributed power
Keywords— MMIC; distributed amplifier; power amplifier; amplifier (NDPA) topology was adopted [4,5]. The output
Gallium Nitride; trifilar transformer power realized with the NDPA approach is proportional to
Vd2/RL where Vd is the power supply voltage and RL is the load
I. INTRODUCTION impedance that the amplifier is driving. Output power may be
Many modern microwave electronic systems specify increased by designing the amplifier to operate with a higher
amplifiers with high output power, wide bandwidth and high power supply voltage and/or a lower load impedance.
efficiency. Until recently most wideband high power amplifier Increasing the supply voltage can be problematic as the
solutions have relied on vacuum electronics based transistor technology may not be able to operate reliably at
technologies. Recent publications however show steady higher voltage and the drain transmission line impedances can
progress in realizing high power, high frequency, wideband become unrealizably high. Therefore to increase output power
amplifiers utilizing Gallium Nitride (GaN) MMIC technology a novel monolithic trifilar coupled line transformer design
that operate from near DC up to 7GHz [1-3]. In [1] 1-6GHz (patent pending) was used to reduce the 50Ω load impedance to
10W and 1-7GHz 20W fully monolithic amplifiers are around 25Ω. An idealized schematic for the transformer
reported. A 25W 0.02-6GHz power amplifier is advertised in connected in the “bootstrap” configuration is shown in Fig.1.
[2]; the amplifier core is monolithic however off chip bias tees
are required to operate the part. Another design requiring Higher Lower
external biasing is described in [3] demonstrating 10W output 50Ω
power from 0.03-2.7GHz. In this paper a fully monolithic 2- 50Ω To
stage 1-8GHz GaN power amplifier MMIC utilizing a novel
trifilar output transformer is described. 22.3Ω

II. PROCESS TECHNOLOGY

The wideband power amplifier MMIC reported here was Fig. 1. Trifilar transformer for up to a 2.25:1 transformation ratio.
fabricated with a production released 0.15μm gate length
process technology with a AlGaN/GaN epitaxial layer grown Theoretically transformation ratios up to 2.25:1 are possible
on a 100μm thick SiC wafer. Typical DC characteristics of depending on the location of the output tap [6]. Due to
these transistors are Imax=1.15A/mm, gm,max=425mS/mm and physical limitations regarding the location of the low
-2.9V pinch-off voltage at 10V Vds. Gate-drain breakdown impedance side tap, the microstrip implementation produced a
voltage typically exceeds 75V at Igd=1mA/mm allowing 28V ratio closer to 2:1. Electromagnetic simulations performed on
operation. The process surface features and grounding include the transformer design suggest that an 8:1 bandwidth can be
three metallization layers for element connection, thin film and supported with this approach. For the NDPA application the
epitaxial resistors, three different capacitance densities and ground connection is replaced by a bypass capacitor providing
through substrate vias for grounding to the back of the MMIC. a drain bias injection port. This mitigates the need for a
The vias are small enough to support compact high wideband high current drain bias choke which can negatively

978-2-87487-044-6 © 2016 EuMA 217 3–4 Oct 2016, London, UK

impact the performance and bandwidth of the amplifier. The temperature under this worst case operating condition is
layout and electromagnetic simulation results using the estimated to be +211°C, well under the process limit for 106
AxiemTM EM solver resident within AWR Microwave Office hours MTTF.
are shown in Fig. 2. The predicted loss varies between 0.28dB
and 1.26dB over the 1-8GHz operating band.

EM Simulation of Trifilar Transformer

0 0
-1 -5
Insertion Loss
-2 -10
Insertion Loss (dB)

Return Loss (dB)

50Ohm Port
-3 -15
25Ohm Port
Fig. 4. Thermal analysis results under worst case conditions.
-4 -20
25Ω Port
-5 -25
IV. MEASURED RESULTS
-6 -30
50Ω Port Fabricated devices were 100% DC and RF tested on-wafer,
-7 -35 pulsed on-wafer output power and PAE data is shown in Fig. 5.
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 The sample size is 187 MMICs from a 5 wafer process lot.
Frequency (GHz) The amplifier was driven with +16dBm continuous wave (CW)
and the 28V drain bias supply is pulsed at 100μs pulse width
Fig. 2. EM simulation results for the Trifilar transformer.
and 10% duty factor. The quiescent bias current was 600mA.
Taking into consideration the frequency range, available
transistor cells, transmission line current handling and On-Wafer Pulsed Power: Pin = 16dBm
realizable characteristic impedances; a 6-cell NDPA driving a 187 Devices, VD=28V, 100us/10% Duty IDQ=600mA
48 50
25Ω load was selected for the output stage of the amplifier.
The output stage also utilizes non-uniform transistor cell sizes

% Power Added Efficiency

46 40
such that the optimum transmission line impedances are
Output Power (dBm)

realizable on a 100μm thick SiC substrate [5]. The driver stage

44 30
topology is a 3-cell NDPA driving a 50 Ω load. Both stages
operate at equal Vd and current density such that the 1st and 2nd
42 20
stage gate as well as 1st and 2nd stage drain bias taps can be
connected together. Hence the circuit has single gate and drain
bond pads. A photograph of the fabricated power amplifier 40 10
MMIC is shown in Fig. 3, die dimensions are 3.25 x 3.50 mm2.
38 0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Frequency (GHz)

Fig. 5. Output power and PAE results measured on-wafer.

The measured output power is greater than 10W from 2-

8GHz rolling off to about 9W at 1GHz. The measured PAE is
typically above 30% for the test frequency range. A property
of the trifilar transformer is increasing impedance at the lower
band edge before eventually becoming a short circuit. This
reduces the output power but boosts the efficiency at low
Fig. 3. Photograph of the manufactured MMIC mounted to a test fixture. frequency. The observed part to part variation in output power
is less than 1dB for most of the frequency range
Thermal analysis was performed on the design as shown in To facilitate testing with bond wires singulated die were
Fig. 4. Channel temperature assessment is complex for a soldered to 40mil thick CuMo carrier plates as shown in
NDPA design as the power dissipation is transistor and Fig. 3. The input and output bond pads are connected to 50Ω
frequency dependent making it difficult to identify a worst de-embedding lines with 3 bond wires. The reported results
case condition. It was determined that the maximum channel are de-embedded to the wire/trace interface. In-fixture S-
temperature occurred in the large FET at the bottom of the parameter data was collected for a 28V drain bias condition
layout shown in Fig. 3 when driven at 2.5GHz. The thermal with the back of the carrier maintained at approximately
analysis results are shown in Fig. 4 with the MMIC backside +25°C. Measured S-parameter results for 5 MMICs are
(AuSn solder included) held at +85°C. The maximum channel plotted in Fig. 6.

218
 In-Fixture S-Parameter Data: 5 Samples In-Fixture CW Power Data
Lot 1528634, +25C, VD=28V, IDQ=650mA Lot 1528634, +25C, VD=28V, IDQ=650mA
35 30
42
30 20
41

Output Power (dBm)

Linear Gain (dB)

Return Loss (dB)

Gain
25 10
IRL 40
20 ORL 0 Pin=16dBm
39
Pin=15dBm
15 -10
38 Pin=14dBm
10 -20 Pin=13dBm
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 37
Frequency (GHz) 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Frequency (GHz)
Fig. 6. S-parameter data measured in-fixture.

Fig. 8. CW power data measured in-fixture

The small signal gain is typically greater than 30dB over
the 1-8GHz frequency range with about 2dB of gain variation.
Wideband data for a single unit over temperature is shown in In-Fixture CW Power Data
Fig. 7. The amplifier is well behaved over temperature with Lot 1528634, +25C, VD=28V, IDQ=650mA
no observable peaking or regeneration. The +25°C simulated 50
Pin=16dBm
results are also shown in Fig. 7 as the dashed traces. % Power Added Efficiency
45 Pin=15dBm
In-Fixture S-Parameter Data Over Temperature Pin=14dBm
Lot 1528634, VD=28V, IDQ=650mA 40
40 30 Pin=13dBm
+85C 35
20 +25C 20
30
Linear Gain (dB)

Return Loss (dB)

-40C
0 Simulation 10
25
-20 0 20
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
-40 -10
Frequency (GHz)
-60 -20
0 3 6 9 12 15 18 Fig. 9. CW power added efficiency data measured in-fixture
Frequency (GHz)
In-Fixture CW Power Data Over Temperature
Fig. 7. S-parameter data over temperature measured in-fixture.
Lot 1528634, VD=28V, IDQ=650mA
42
Large signal characterization of the amplifier was
performed under the same conditions as the s-parameter
41
Output P7dB (dBm)

testing. Measured output power and power added efficiency

results under CW operating conditions are plotted in Fig. 8 and
Fig. 9. For a 16dBm input drive the saturated output power for 40
the amplifier was observed to vary between 9.3W and 13.1W
+85C
over the 1-8GHz design frequency range. The measured PAE 39
for 16dBm input power is greater than 29% peaking up to 46% +25C
at 1GHz. The power amplifier MMIC was also characterized 38
over temperature to check for performance degradation due to -40C
drive margin or thermal issues. The results for power and 37
efficiency at 7dB of gain compression are plotted in Fig. 10
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
and Fig. 11 respectively. Similar to the S-parameter results
over temperature the output power and PAE are well behaved. Frequency (GHz)
The output power varies 0.2-0.4dB over the 125°C temperature
range. Fig. 10. CW output power data over temperature measured in-fixture

219
 blocks off chip at both the input and output ports of the MMIC.
In-Fixture CW Power Data Over Temperature Comparing the output power, PAE and die size for parts that
Lot 1528634, VD=28V, IDQ=650mA utilize off chip versus on chip bias circuitry, it becomes clear
50 how significantly these components impact the performance
and size of the amplifier. Monolithically integrating the bias
choke on chip while maintaining a reasonable die size is clearly
40
% PAE at P7dB

a significant challenge when designing wideband power

amplifiers.
30
+85C TABLE I
20 +25C
-40C
10
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Frequency (GHz)

Fig. 11. CW efficiency data over temperature measured in-fixture

Power compression curves measured at -40°C are plotted VI. CONCLUSION

in Fig. 12. Note that the compression characteristic is well The design and measured performance of a 1-8GHz power
behaved with no discontinuities or kinks that would otherwise amplifier MMIC fabricated with a 0.15μm Gallium Nitride
suggest drive dependent and/or parameteric instability. (GaN) process technology has been described. The design
utilizes a non-uniform distributed power amplifier (NDPA)
In-Fixture CW Compression Chracteristics topology with a novel trifilar output transformer. The
Lot 1528634, -40C, VD=28V, IDQ=650mA transformer provides a drain bias injection point mitigating the
42 need for a high current wideband bias choke and all other bias
circuitry is monolithically integrated on chip. The 2-stage
amplifier demonstrates 31dB typical small signal gain, 9.3-
40
Output Power (dBm)

13.1W of output power over a 1-8GHz bandwidth with greater

than 29% associated power added efficiency (PAE). Large and
38 small signal data collected over temperature for the MMIC
2GHz demonstrates well behaved, stable operation. The measured
36 performance of the amplifier MMIC described here compares
4GHz favorably with recently published results for bandwidth, gain,
34 6GHz die size and efficiency.
8GHz
32 REFERENCES
-2 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 [1] J. J. Komiak, R. J. Lender, K. Chu, and P. C. Chao, “Wideband 1 to 6
Input Power (dBm) GHz ten and twenty watt balanced GaN HEMT power amplifier
MMICs,” in Proc. 2011 Compound Semiconductor Integrated Circuit
Symp., pp. 233–236.
Fig. 12. CW power compression characteristics at -40°C measured in-fixture. [2] Wolfspeed Datasheet, CMPA0060025D
[3] B. Kim, M. Green, and M. Osmus, “Broadband High Efficiency GaN
Discrete and MMIC Power Amplifiers over 30 – 2700 MHz Range,”
V. COMPARISON TO PUBLISHED RESULTS 2014 IEEE MTT-S International Microwave Symposium Digest.
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pp. 2640-2647, Oct. 2009.
range, exhibit wide bandwidth and output power levels that
[5] C. Duperrier, M. Campovecchio, L. Roussel, M. Lajugie and R. Quere,
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references [2] and [3] one has to supply bias chokes and DC Edition 2001.

220