Ka-Band, Reactively Matched Non-Uniform Distributed Power Amplifier MMICs in GaN-on-SiC

The design and measured performance of two high power, Ka-Band GaN MMIC PAs combining non-uniform distributed driving stages with reactively matched output stages are presented. The combination of these circuit topologies achieves a middle ground in performance in terms of bandwidth and efficiency between each topology purely on its own. The two designs achieve 6 W and 15 W of output power with associated PAEs of 16% on average across $30-40 \mathrm{GHz}$ and $28-40 \mathrm{GHz}$ bands, respectively. This paper describes some of the important design considerations at the interface between the distributed and reactively matched stages, while showing state-of-the-art results.