Ku-band high power internally matched GaN HEMTs with 1.5 GHz bandwidth

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to report upon high power, internally matched GaN high electron mobility transistors (HEMTs) at Ku band with 1.5 GHz bandwidth, which employ a simple and cost-effective lossless compensated matching technique. Design/methodology/approach - Two 4 mm gate periphery GaN HEMTs are parallel combined and internally matched with multi-section reactive impedance transformers at the input and output networks. The output matching network is designed at the upper frequency of the design band for a flat power of the circuit, while the input matching network is designed at the upper frequency for a flat gain. Findings - With the reactively compensated matching technique, the internally matched GaN HEMTs exhibit a flat saturated output power of 43.2 + 0.7 dBm and an average power added efficiency of 15 per cent over 12 to 13.5 GHz. Originality/value - This paper provides useful information for the internally matched GaN HEMTs.