Fabricated using GaN-on-Silicon Carbide (SiC) technology, the new Ka-band Monolithic Microwave Integrated Circuit (MMIC), GMICP2731-10 GaN from Microchip Technology is designed to be used in commercial and defense satellite communications, 5G networks, and other aerospace and defense systems. This GaN MMIC power amplifier helps in maintaining signal fidelity by allowing Earth stations to transmit at high RF levels while maintaining the quality of the signal.
The GMICP2731-10 GaN MMIC delivers up to 10W of saturated RF output power across the 3.5 GHz of bandwidth between 27.5 to 31 GHz. The power-added efficiency of the device is 20% with 22 dB of small-signal gain and 15 dB of return loss. The device has a balanced architecture that enables it to be well matched to 50-ohms and includes integrated DC blocking capacitors at the output to simplify design integration.
Talking about plus points of the device in terms of size, weight, power, and cost that OEMs can benefit from, the company officials said that these new GaN MMICs used in high-power SSPAs can help achieve greater than 30% lower power and weight as compared to their GaAs counterparts which are ideal for satellite OEMs.
Moreover, the GMICP2731-10 complements the company’s existing portfolio of GaAs MMIC RF power amplifiers, switches, low-noise amplifiers, and Wi-Fi front-end modules along with the GaN-on-SiC High Electron Mobility Transistor (HEMT) driver and final amplifier transistors for radar systems. Customers can buy the compact models of the GMICP2731-10 to model the performance and expedite the design of the power amplifier in their systems more easily.
