- News
13 March 2018
Qorvo launches highest-power GaN-on-SiC RF transistor
© Semiconductor Today Magazine / Juno PublishiPicture: Disco’s DAL7440 KABRA laser saw.
Qorvo Inc of Greensboro, NC, USA (which provides core technologies and RF solutions for mobile, infrastructure and defense applications) has launched what it claims is the highest-power gallium nitride on silicon carbide (GaN-on-SiC) RF transistor (with engineering samples available now).
Operating at 1.0-1.1GHz with a power of 1.8kW at 65V, the input-matched QPD1025 delivers the signal integrity and extended reach essential for L-band avionics and Identification Friend or Foe (IFF) applications, says the firm. Linear gain is 22.5dB and typical power-addd efficiency (PAE, for 3dB) is 77.2% at 1.0GHz load pull.
Supplied in 4-lead NI-1230 (earless) package, the new QPD1025 transistor offers “comparable pulsed power and duty-cycle performance to silicon LDMOS and silicon bipolar devices, but with a marked improvement in efficiency,” comments Asif Anwar, executive director of market research firm Strategy Analytics’ Strategic Technologies Practice. “Qorvo further achieves this high power and efficiency without introducing exotic materials such as diamond into the process flow for thermal management, ensuring a solution that is cost effective,” he adds.
“This new high-power transistor will save customers time and money by eliminating the difficult exercise of combining amplifiers to create multi-kilowatt solutions,” says Roger Hall, general manager, Qorvo High Power Solutions. “The QPD1025 has significantly better drain efficiency and beats LDMOS by nearly 15 percentage points of efficiency, which is significant in IFF and avionics applications,” he claims.