Irish company Arralis has launched a GaN on SiC high power amplifier (HPA) optimized for satellite downlinks at K-Band. The HPA operates from 17.5 to 20 GHz and, biased at 25 V, provides a saturated output power greater than 10 W with a typical power-added efficiency of 25 percent and 20 dB large-signal gain. The MMIC is matched to 50 Ω, integrates DC blocking capacitors on the RF ports and incorporates an output power detector to assist with system control. Die size is 3.6 mm x 2.9 mm.

The MMIC is available as a bare die or in a preassembled evaluation board.

The HPA is fabricated on UMS’ 0.25 µm GH25-10 GaN on SiC process, which is space qualified and “ITAR free.” Compared to equivalent GaAs transistors, GaN devices have higher efficiency, power density and thermal conductivity and can operate at higher temperature without significant reliability degradation.

The performance of the Arralis K-Band HPA has been achieved through a combination of UMS device models, NI AWR EDA software and the expertise of the Arralis design team.

"The addition of this latest HPA to Arralis’ suite of devices builds on our high performance K/Ka-Band Leonis chipset, forming the final link in the RF power chain and delivering 10 W of saturated output power in a compact GaN MMIC. The new GaN HPA exemplifies the design and application expertise that Arralis provides across a range of mmWave bands.” — Thomas Young, senior MMIC design engineer at Arralis

The Leonis chipset was developed to meet the growing demand for low-cost K/Ka-Band satellite equipment that is simple to interface with current digital internet hardware. Applications include 5G communications, airborne high-speed Wi-Fi, low earth orbit mega constellation communications, drone constellations and SAT-drone-ground data networks, satellite to automotive connectivity, connected vehicles, last mile and remote internet solutions, IoT and M2M communications.