A compact Ka‐band MMIC power amplifier using continuous Class‐B/J mode technique.

This letter presents a Ka‐band GaAs broadband high efficiency power amplifier (PA). The power amplifier achieves the best trade‐off among gain, output power, power added efficiency (PAE), and fractional bandwidth through nonlinear simulations to select proper device size and bias conditions. The high‐efficiency and broadband performances are achieved by using continuous Class‐B/J mode for fundamental and second harmonics output matching network. The fabricated PA achieves a power gain of 18.8 dB, a 3‐dB bandwidth of 25–30.2 GHz, a saturation power 25.5 dBm, a peak PAE of 30.0%. The chip size is as compact as 1.08 mm2 including all pads. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]