This work presents a high-efficiency and linear Ka-band power amplifier (PA) designed in a 0.13 µm depletion-mode GaAs pHEMT process, targeting 5G phased-array systems. To minimize passive losses, the output matching network employs an all-transmission line architecture. Phase mismatches among output branches are compensated directly within the interstage and output matching networks via tailored distributed and capacitive components. Device-level reliability is proactively addressed by maintaining adequate voltage headroom under worst-case load mismatch, based on voltage standing wave ratio (VSWR) analysis. The amplifier achieves a peak small-signal gain of 15.8 dB at 27 GHz. Under continuous-wave excitation at 27 GHz, it delivers 32.9 dBm output power at the 1-dB compression point with 32.8\% power-added efficiency (PAE), reaching a peak saturated output of 33.2 dBm and 35.9\% PAE. When driven by a 64-QAM signal with a 250 MHz symbol rate, the PA maintains an average output power of 26.3 dBm and an average PAE of 12.2\%, with an rms EVM of 3.4\% and an SNR of 25.5 dB.
Yan, D, Yang, Z, Peumans, D, Ingels, M & Wambacq, P 2026, 'A High-Efficiency 2 W Ka-Band GaAs Power Amplifier with Phase Compensation for 5G Phased Array Systems', Electronics, vol. 15, no. 10, 2053. https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics15102053
Yan, D., Yang, Z., Peumans, D., Ingels, M., & Wambacq, P. (2026). A High-Efficiency 2 W Ka-Band GaAs Power Amplifier with Phase Compensation for 5G Phased Array Systems. Electronics, 15(10), Article 2053. https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics15102053
@article{fafc6cd09f864c5c963ee0f38ea818cf,
title = "A High-Efficiency 2 W Ka-Band GaAs Power Amplifier with Phase Compensation for 5G Phased Array Systems",
abstract = "This work presents a high-efficiency and linear Ka-band power amplifier (PA) designed in a 0.13 µm depletion-mode GaAs pHEMT process, targeting 5G phased-array systems. To minimize passive losses, the output matching network employs an all-transmission line architecture. Phase mismatches among output branches are compensated directly within the interstage and output matching networks via tailored distributed and capacitive components. Device-level reliability is proactively addressed by maintaining adequate voltage headroom under worst-case load mismatch, based on voltage standing wave ratio (VSWR) analysis. The amplifier achieves a peak small-signal gain of 15.8 dB at 27 GHz. Under continuous-wave excitation at 27 GHz, it delivers 32.9 dBm output power at the 1-dB compression point with 32.8\% power-added efficiency (PAE), reaching a peak saturated output of 33.2 dBm and 35.9\% PAE. When driven by a 64-QAM signal with a 250 MHz symbol rate, the PA maintains an average output power of 26.3 dBm and an average PAE of 12.2\%, with an rms EVM of 3.4\% and an SNR of 25.5 dB.",
keywords = "GaAs, pHEMT, Ka-band, mm-wave, MMIC, power amplifier, power combiner, 5G phased-array systems",
author = "Dongyang Yan and Zhang Yang and Dries Peumans and Mark Ingels and Piet Wambacq",
note = "Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2026 by the authors.",
year = "2026",
month = may,
day = "11",
doi = "10.3390/electronics15102053",
language = "English",
volume = "15",
journal = "Electronics",
issn = "2079-9292",
publisher = "MDPI AG",
number = "10",
}