S-Band GaN based Power Amplifier with Symmetric Matching Network

In this letter, we propose an S-Band Power Amplifier based on a symmetric matching network using 10 W CREE GaN devices at 2.6 GHz. The design procedure focuses on choosing the source and load impedances close to each other, so that the matching networks at both the input and the output are symmetric. The advantage of this technique is that the output matching network remains unchanged once the input matching network is implemented. The power amplifier has a measured gain of 15.4 dB at 2.6 GHz, an output power of 38.1 dBm and a measured Power Added Efficiency (PAE) of 46.7 %. The design provides decent linearity with an Output 1-dB compression point (OP1dB) of 31.7 dBm and a Third Order Intercept (TOI) point of 40.8 dBm.