Design of a 28 GHz differential GaAs power amplifier with capacitive neutralization for 5G mmwave applications
 
Design of a 28 GHz differential GaAs power amplifier with capacitive neutralization for 5G mmwave applications 
 
Dongyang Yan, Mark Ingels, Giovanni Mangraviti, Yao Liu, Bertrand Parvais, Niamh Waldron, Nadine Collaert, Piet Wambacq
 
Abstract 

This paper describes the design of a 28 GHz power amplifier (PA) in a commercial GaAs mHEMT technology using concepts that are typical for mm-wave CMOS design. Simulations show a 1dB output compression point of around 23 dBm with a 30% power-added efficiency (PAE) at 28 GHz, while providing a gain of 12 dB. Comparison with the performance of a similar 28 GHz fully-depleted Silicon-On-Insulator (FDSOI) PA shows an increase of the compression point with 10 dB while efficiency is comparable. The high compression point of this GaAsPA offers a margin for system optimization such as a reduction of the number of antennas for beamforming.