A High-Efficiency 2 W Ka-Band GaAs Power Amplifier with Phase Compensation for 5G Phased Array Systems
 
A High-Efficiency 2 W Ka-Band GaAs Power Amplifier with Phase Compensation for 5G Phased Array Systems 
 
Dongyang Yan, Dongyang Yan, Zhang Yang, Zhang Yang, Dries Peumans, Dries Peumans, Mark Ingels, Mark Ingels, Piet Wambacq, Piet Wambacq
 
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.