Comparative Evaluation of Optimum Power and Efficiency Terminations Predicted by Alternative Methods for GaN Ka-band Power Amplifier Design

A comparative evaluation is provided in this paper regarding two design approaches for Ka-band Gallium Nitride Power Amplifiers. The first approach uses the standard electrical models provided by the foundry, while the alternative approach uses a custom model derived from in-house load-pull characterization. Both Power Amplifiers are designed to provide 30 dBm output power and 30% efficiency in the 31 - 35 GHz bandwidth. It is shown that the PA based on the custom model has a better PAE performance by about 4% and higher output power by 0.3 dB.