A Reconfigurable Load-Modulated Balanced 9-GHz Power Amplifier Design for Radar Applications

Skippings, Joseph Christopher, Ekpo, Sunday Cookey ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9219-3759, Elias, Fanuel and Gibson, Andy ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2874-5816 (2024) A Reconfigurable Load-Modulated Balanced 9-GHz Power Amplifier Design for Radar Applications. In: The Second International Conference on Adaptive and Sustainable Science, Engineering and Technology (ASSET) 2023, 18 July 2023 - 20 July 2023, Ikot Akpaden, Nigeria and Manchester, UK.

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Abstract

In the last two decades, radar has been increasingly utilised in new vertical industries, and commercial and government sectors as object detectors due to advanced process technologies and efficient designs. Power amplifiers (PAs) imple-mented in these radar systems play a crucial role in the system's function, capabilities, and limitations. Linearity, gain, and efficiency are important PA performance metrics at higher output power levels. This paper proposes the load-modulated balanced amplifier (LMBA) design as an efficient PA architecture to meet stringent radiation-prone space and terrestrial use case requirements. A -gate GaN-on-SiC WIN transistor was utilised to design a 9-GHz LMBA PA. It was biased at a gate voltage of -2.6 V and drain voltage of 28 V, The PA achieved an output power of > 33 dBm, and a gain output of > 9 dB at a PAE of > 55 %.