SUCCESS STORY
Key Challenges
The Ka band is a popular frequency for millimeter-wave
(mmWave) applications for 5G communications.
High-efficiency and high-output power amplifiers (PAs) are
required to reduce power consumption and increase data
transmission distance. However, although gallium nitride
(GaN) is widely used for wideband applications, most
Ka-band GaN amplifiers have only 10% efficiency at backoff
output power due to their Class-AB single-ended configu-
ration.
Mitsubishi Electric engineers were challenged to meet the
requirements for a PA with high output power and high
efficiency at backoff output power by designing a 28GHz
PA monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC) using a
high-efficiency Doherty architecture. The PA MMIC was to
be fabricated using a 0.15µm GaN process technology with
a 50µm silicon carbide (SiC) substrate (Figure 1).
Figure 1: Photograph of the GaN Doherty amplifier MMIC
Mitsubishi Electric
Mitsubishi Electric Develops 28GHz
High-Efficiency GaN Doherty PA for
mmWave 5G Using AWR Software
Application
X
MMIC Amplifier
Software
X
Cadence
®
AWR Design Environment
®
Software
Portfolio, including:
ɢ Cadence AWR
®
Microwave Office
®
Circuit Design
Software
ɢ Cadence AWR AXIEM
®
Planar Electromagnetic (EM)
Simulator
Benefits
X
Ease of use
X
High accuracy
X
Speed of simulations
