Description
Objective: The objective of this activity is to design, manufacture and test an output amplifier based on European GaN MMIC technology.
Targeted Improvements: The GaN implementation of the output stage could be very attractive since the technology can provide high linearity together with high efficiency i.e. high figure of merit(IP3/P_DC). An improvement of 5 dB is expected. Moreover, the inherent property of GaN impedance level of GaN vs. that of GaAs brings easier matching and wider bandwidth.
Description: Frequency converters are today based on GaAs technology. Fulfilling the new linearity requirements simultaneously with a low power consumptionis very challenging as evidenced by several converter developments (C, Ku, K). Indeed, the GaAs technology has been pushed to its limits in this respect, and even in the best case, there is no design margin left and noncompliances are frequent. The starting pointfor activity is the existing GaAs output amplifier designs. These can be used as baselines for the GaN amplifier. The GaN amplifieris expected to improve the equipment competitiveness due to the increased linearity and design margin. In addition, the linearity requirement should be achieved with one GaN power amplifiers, contrary to the current GaAs design imposing 2 parallel power amplifiers.
The activity shall commence with consolidation of the converter output stage requirements for linearity, consumption, figure of merit, and thermal environment for C or Ku-band converters. Next, the trade-off and consolidation of the output amplifier architecture shall be carried out. Finally the detailed design, manufacturing and test of the MMIC and its variants shall carried out, based onEuropean GaN technology. A test in an EM representative RF line-up converter configuration over temperature shall be included.
Tender Specifics