A Ku-band 20 W GaN-MMIC amplifier with built-in linearizer

This report describes a Ku-band amplifier GaN MMIC. The amplifier MMIC delivers a measured saturated power of 20 W and gain of 20 dB under CW operation. To enhance the linearity of the two stage amplifier composed of the MMIC and GaN Internally Matched FET, a diode linearizer has also been built into the MMIC. The linearizer offers 5dB better linear output power, defined the output power at IM3 of -25 dBc, compared with that of MMIC without the linearizer. To our knowledge, this is the first report to present GaN-based high power amplifier MMIC with a built-in linearizer which can enhance the linearity of a PA system.