News

21 May 2010

 

Cree to demo GaN HEMT RF packaged power amplifier & switch products

At the IEEE MTT-S International Microwave Symposium (IMS 2010) in Anaheim, CA (25-27 May) Cree Inc of Durham, NC, USA plans to provide RF and microwave design engineers with the opportunity to see firsthand its latest developments in GaN MMIC technology by demonstrating a variety of new packaged GaN HEMT-based RF products (targeted for release later this year). These include a SPDT MMIC switch (0.3-3GHz); a 25W MMIC power amplifier (10MHz to 6GHz); a 75W MMIC power amplifier (2.7-3.5GHz); and a 240W transistor (2.9-3.5GHz).

"We have been actively expanding our GaN MMIC and high-power discrete product lines over the last 12 months to include higher-power, higher-efficiency amplifiers, as well as the recent introduction of high dynamic range GaN switch and our low-noise amplifier (LNA) MMIC products, which we believe can further extend the advantages of GaN for commercial and military systems," says Jim Milligan, director of RF & Microwave Products.

“These product demonstrations are designed to show the benefits of Cree GaN to hardware design engineers seeking ways to improve system-level output power, bandwidth and dynamic range beyond what can be achieved with traditional GaAs or silicon LDMOS solutions," he adds. "They will also have access to our product development engineers to answer questions regarding specific implementation and advantages of these next-generation products."

The CMSA30025S is the first GaN MMIC SPDT switch to operate over the 300MHz to 3GHz range with less than 0.7dB insertion loss, 30dB isolation and less than 20ns switching speed, the firm claims. RF power handling capability is 25W CW at only 0.1dB compression with an output intercept point higher than 60dBm. The demo will show the QFN version of the switch in a test fixture with the driver under 'hot switching' conditions. As well as having small size and low power consumption, the switch can be incorporated into a circuit with few additional components (unlike conventional PIN diode switches).

The CMPA0060025F is a packaged GaN MMIC power amplifier operating from below 10MHz up to 6GHz with typical saturated output power of greater than 25W CW and power gain of 12dB. The distributed amplifier has typical drain efficiencies of 40% and is packaged within a 0.5-inch square footprint. The amplifier is being demonstrated in an evaluation fixture available for customer measurements.

The CMPA2735075F is the first of a family of radar-centric packaged MMIC power amplifiers. Demonstrated in its evaluation fixture, it provides 75W of pulsed RF power (with pulse widths of 300 microseconds typical at 10% duty cycle) with accompanying power gain of 20dB over the 2.7-3.5GHz frequency range. The 50 ohm (in/out) matched MMIC typically provides 55% power added efficiency (PAE). The device is housed in a small, 0.5-inch square package and exhibits superior amplitude and phase droop characteristics, it is claimed.

The CGH35240F is a fully internally matched, 50 ohm power transistor using Cree’s GaN-on-SiC technology for what is claimed to be excellent thermal management and reliability. The packaged 0.70-inch x 0.95-inch transistor provides saturated output power of more than 220W with accompanying power gain of more than 11dB over the 2.9-3.5GHz frequency range with typical PAE of 60%. The device is being demonstrated in an evaluation fixture available for customer measurements in typical radar applications.

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