Search Results (147)

A hybrid balanced power amplifier operating in C-band at 5.8 GHz has been designed for UAV communications using packaged GaN HEMTs and microstrip technology. To reduce the overall circuit footprint, Sierpinski space-filling curves are employed in the design of the hybrid quadrature couplers, allowing almost 40% miniaturization without degrading performance. The manufactured balanced amplifier prototype exhibits, at the carrier frequency and at 3 dB gain compression, a measured output RF power of 38.9 dBm (≈8 W) and a drain efficiency of 53%. Full article

This paper presents an adaptive combining power amplifier (PA) implemented in the ETGaN15 process. The proposed architecture eliminates the λ/4 impedance transformers required in conventional back-off efficiency enhancement techniques, employing instead a combining network composed solely of microstrip lines and capacitors. The proposed circuit dynamically performs load modulation and power combining according to the input power level, simplifying the overall impedance matching structure while improving efficiency in the output back-off region. The measurement results demonstrate a small-signal gain of 8 dB and a peak output power of 34 dBm across the 10 GHz band. The PA achieves a peak power-added efficiency (PAE) of 28% and a peak drain efficiency (DE) of 41%, while maintaining a PAE of 23% and a DE of 28% at a 6-dB output power back-off (OBO). Full article

This work presents the design and characterization of a portable UV-B phototherapy system based on 308 nm LEDs, intended as a compact and mercury-free alternative for vitiligo treatment. Optical measurements showed a narrow emission centered at 308 nm, with stable spectral behavior and an optical power of approximately 1 mW at the treatment surface, comparable to conventional mercury and excimer lamps but without their associated environmental and thermal issues. A matrix of nine AlGaN UV-B LEDs was used to improve illumination uniformity and compensate for the lower output of individual devices. The electronic system includes an operational amplifier, a MOSFET driver, and a GaN photodiode-based transimpedance amplifier (TIA), allowing real-time UV-B monitoring and closed-loop intensity control. An FPGA-based interface enables precise adjustment of exposure time, duty cycle, and LED selection for localized treatment. Moreover, the system is inherently scalable, as the irradiation area and output power can be increased by adding more LEDs without major changes to the control system. The biological evaluation indicated that UV-B exposure did not affect fibroblast viability under recommended conditions, while signs of DNA damage appeared only at higher intensities and longer exposure times. These results suggest that the system can be used safely within controlled limits. Future work will focus on dose–response studies in clinically relevant models to assess therapeutic effectiveness. Full article

This work presents the first design of an active frequency quadrupler based on GaN HEMTs. It is based on two cascaded frequency doubler stages that allow up-conversion from the S band to the X band, obtaining conversion gain in narrowband without the need for any additional buffer amplifier. A hybrid prototype of the quadrupler provides, at the input fundamental frequency of 2.5 GHz, a measuredfourthharmonic maximum conversion gain of 13.7 dB and an output power of 23.5 dBm, with suppression of both fundamental andsecondharmonic above 14 dBc. To obtain these results, due to its impact in the final quadrupler behavior, a prototype of the higher frequency second stage doubler was designed and manufactured separately to assess its RF performance. The experimental results of this standalone prototype are highly competitive with the current state of the art in frequency doublers at the C band. Full article

In this paper, we present an optimized driving strategy for a dual RF input envelope tracking power amplifier (ET PA) exploiting load modulation. The dual-input architecture enables dynamic load modulation (LM), allowing real-time adjustment of the load impedance to enhance performance over the signal dynamics typical of digital modulation schemes. The proposed approach considers a GaN HEMT-based LM-ET PA characterized under pulsed excitation across multiple amplitude and phase conditions of the load modulation control. Optimizing the control parameters yields a suitable shaping function that extends conventional ET supply modulation to include amplitude and phase control of the auxiliary amplifier, thereby improving the efficiency, output power, and linearity of the main amplifier. Experimental data demonstrate that the proposed dual RF input GaN-based LM-ET PA at 3.6 GHz outperforms a conventional ET PA in both efficiency and linearity when tested with high peak-to-average ratio (PAPR) signals. Full article

Alternate wetting and drying (AWD) irrigation reduces CH₄ emissions from flooded rice but amplifies N₂O pulses; identifying candidate phenological windows for the remote screening of greenhouse gas (GHG) fluxes remains challenging with small datasets. In a single-site, single-season exploratory study at INIA Vista Florida (Lambayeque, Peru), eight UAV flights were paired with eight PlanetScope SuperDove scenes ($|\Delta |\le 1$ d) and closed-chamber CH₄, N₂O and CO₂ fluxes under four water regimes (CF, AWD₅, AWD₁₀, AWD₂₀; 96 sub-plot × date observations). Multivariate explanatory power was assessed by bootstrap Ridge regression on each sensor’s native predictors (VI + GLCM + $T_{\mathrm{mean}}$ for the UAV, VI for PlanetScope). Maximum tillering (79 DAS) emerged as a candidate UAV window, ranking in the top three for all gases through GLCM textures, whereas PlanetScope peaked at Mid-boot and Late-boot (103–107 DAS), with median ${\widetilde{R^2}}_{\mathrm{UAV}}$ at $0.34$–$0.71$ and ${\widetilde{R^2}}_{\mathrm{Planet}}$ at $0.20$–$0.60$. Nested Leave-One-Plot-Out (LOPO) validation gave $R_{\mathrm{CV}}^2$ between $+0.57$ and $+0.69$ for four of six platform × gas combinations (UAV-CH₄ and Planet-N₂O stayed weak), and $T_{\mathrm{mean}}$ was decisive for N₂O on the UAV ($\Delta R^2=+0.48$). Repeating the stage selection inside every LOPO fold preserved the leading combinations and their ranking. These exploratory windows and sensor-native descriptors need multi-site, multi-season validation before operational use. Full article

To meet the high standard requirements for broadband high-efficiency power amplifiers in modern communication technology, a 6–18 GHz high-efficiency monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC) power amplifier was developed using a 0.25 μm gallium nitride high-electron mobility transistor (GaN HEMT) process. A multistage Chebyshev-filter-based matching approach is utilized to provide the requisite bandwidth while concurrently managing second-harmonic terminations for enhanced PAE. In the final power stage, a multi-cell combining architecture is employed to achieve high saturated output power. The designed GaN amplifier achieves a saturated power of above 43.5 dBm and a PAE of over 30%. The area of the proposed GaN amplifier is 4 × 3.2 mm². This chip, with its high efficiency and compact size, is promising for high-performance wideband systems. Full article

Power amplifiers are one of the most important microwave components and key equipment in satellite transponder subsystems. It plays a significant role in enhancing the overall capabilities of satellite systems, optimizing thermal design, and ensuring reliability. The rapid development of High Throughput Satellites (HTS) and global mobile communication satellites imposes challenges to power amplifier design. This paper presents a dual-band Doherty power amplifier (DPA) with a hybrid GaN HEMT device and a commercial transistor that can operate simultaneously at 0.9 GHz and 2.14 GHz. At 6 dB output power back-off (OBO), the proposed amplifier achieves drain efficiencies of 42% and 37% at the two frequency bands respectively. When excited by a 20 MHz 16 QAM signal, it exhibits adjacent channel power ratios (ACPR) of −45.4 dBc and −48.6 dBc at output power levels of 34.8 dBm and 34.9 dBm respectively. A novel dual-band offset line structure was employed to achieve the required dual-band load modulation. The proposed DPA is well-suited for application in dual-band wireless communication systems. Full article

This research focuses on the design and simulation of a V-band single-chip transmit-and-receive front-end integrating an LNA, PA and switching functions for ISL terminals. Two technologies are compared: a 60 nm GaN/Si HEMT from MESC and a 100 nm GaAs HEMT from UMS. In Tx mode, the proposed design targets a saturated output power of at least 20 dBm and a power-added efficiency of no less than 5%. In Rx mode, the goal is 4 dB noise figure. In both cases, the small signal gain must exceed 20 dB across the 59–71 GHz band. Full article

This research focuses on developing, manufacturing and testing a V-band single-chip transmit and receive front-end integrating an LNA, PA and switching functions for ISL terminals. A comparison is made between two technologies: a 60 nm GaN/Si HEMT from MESC and a 100 nm GaAs HEMT from UMS. In Tx mode, targets include 23 dBm saturated power, ≥20 dBm at 14 dB NPR and ≥5% PAE. In Rx mode, the goal is a 4 dB noise figure. In both cases, the gain must exceed 20 dB across the 59–71 GHz band. Full article

This paper presents a 13 W Ku-band GaN HEMT MMIC power amplifier employing a coupled-line interstage stabilization technique for radar sensor front-end applications. High-efficiency and stable power amplification in the Ku-band is essential for radar sensing systems, where low-frequency instability and process sensitivity often limit multistage GaN amplifier performance. To address these challenges, a coupled-line interstage network is introduced instead of conventional series capacitors and parallel RC stabilization circuits. The proposed structure effectively suppresses low-frequency gain while maintaining RF performance and improving robustness against process variations due to its planar transmission-line implementation. The two-stage power amplifier was fabricated using a 0.25 μm commercial GaN HEMT MMIC process. For compact implementation, the coupled-line structure was realized in a meandered layout and verified through full electromagnetic simulations. Measured small-signal results show a gain (S21) of 18.6–21.6 dB, with input and output return losses (S11 and S22) of −3.3 to −10.2 dB and −4.4 to −7.2 dB, respectively, over 13.5–16 GHz. Large-signal measurements demonstrate a saturated output power of 40.7–41.5 dBm and a power-added efficiency of 21.3–28.1% across the same frequency range. The fabricated MMIC achieved stable operation without oscillation, validating the effectiveness of the proposed coupled-line stabilization approach for Ku-band radar sensor systems. Full article

This study proposes a 300 W class Gallium Nitride (GaN) Solid-State Power Amplifier (SSPA)-based microwave plasma generator system for implementing next-generation light sources with high brightness and color rendering at 2.45 GHz. To overcome the lifetime limitations and control constraints of conventional magnetron systems, the proposed system introduces custom packaging technology utilizing GaN-on-SiC Bare-dies fabricated via the Win-semiconductor’s NP25 process. This approach minimizes parasitic components and significantly reduces thermal resistance compared to standard packages, ensuring reliability during high-power operation. A stable RF output of 300 W was achieved through two-stage power combining. For the plasma source, an Ar-InBr-Hg gas mixture was employed to optimize optical characteristics. This gas mixture is commonly used in electrodeless plasma lamps due to its high luminous efficacy and stable discharge characteristics. To analyze the rapid impedance discontinuity during gas ignition, numerical analysis based on the Drude model was performed, theoretically identifying the complex permittivity transition of the medium and the resulting resonant frequency up-shift mechanism. To mitigate system instability during this transition, an adaptive frequency tracking and feedback control loop based on real-time VSWR monitoring was implemented. Experimental results demonstrate precise tracking within a 100 MHz frequency variable range, achieving a system efficiency of over 53% and maintaining a VSWR below 1.15:1. These results validate the practical feasibility of GaN SSPA technology in electrodeless lighting and industrial plasma applications utilizing high-power RF energy. Full article

This article presents the design and implementation of a 6–18 GHz GaN monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC) power amplifier (PA). A two-stage cascaded reactive matching network structure based on transistor stacking technology is employed to achieve circuit gain, and a multi-cell combination is used in the final stage to simultaneously achieve high power and high efficiency. For demonstration, a prototype of the proposed PA with an area of 4.5 × 3.4 mm² is fabricated in a 0.1 µm GaN-on-Si high-electron-mobility transistor (HEMT) process. The measured results of the GaN PA show a small signal gain of 25–29 dB, an output power of 40.8–42.5 dBm, and a power-added efficiency (PAE) of 27–38% in the operating frequency range of 6–18 GHz. Full article

To meet the demand for high efficiency in modern broadband communication systems, this paper presents a novel continuous-mode Doherty power amplifier design method based on integrated high-order filter prototypes. By deeply merging the filter structure with the output matching network, broadband impedance transformation and harmonic suppression are simultaneously achieved within the 1.6–2.2 GHz frequency range. This approach resolves the bandwidth limitations and efficiency degradation caused by the conventional separation of matching and harmonic control stages. Using a CGH40010F GaN transistor, the impedance space was determined through load-pull analysis, and the design flexibility was enhanced by applying continuous Class-F mode theory. The implemented amplifier demonstrates a saturated efficiency of 68–72%, a 6 dB back-off efficiency of 58.9–64.9%, a saturated output power exceeding 45 dBm, an in-band gain greater than 11.2 dB, and a return loss better than −15 dB. The proposed method offers an effective solution for the design of high-performance broadband power amplifiers. Full article

Based on a large-signal chip model, this paper designs and implements an L-band broadband continuous-wave 400 W high-efficiency power amplifier fabricated using 0.5 μm GaN High Electron Mobility Transistor (HEMT) technology. The input-matching circuit employs a hybrid structure combining a lumped-element pre-matching network and a multi-section microstrip capacitor network to achieve impedance matching with a 50 Ω port. The output-matching circuit uses a multi-segment microstrip structure to meet the impedance requirements of the continuous mode, thereby achieving broadband impedance matching. In addition, in the circuit implementation, by optimizing the placement of the blocking capacitor, the current flowing through it is minimized to a low level, enhancing the circuit’s high-power handling capability under continuous-wave operation. Additionally, the power amplifier’s reliability lifetime was calculated based on simulation results of the operating temperature of the GaN amplifier chip. Measurement results demonstrate that across a wide operating bandwidth within the L-band, the output power exceeds 400 W with a drain efficiency greater than 70%. The estimated reliability lifetime (MTTF) of the power amplifier is 8.1 × 10⁷ h. Full article