Packaged High Power Frond-End Module for Broadband 24GHz & 28GHz 5G solutions

This paper presents the realization and characteristics of broadband plastic low cost packaged 5G High Power Frond-End (HPFE) operating in 24-31GHz bandwidth. This demonstrator includes a Transmit and Receive paths realized on mixed technologies: 150nm Gallium Nitride on Silicon Carbide (AlGaN/GaN on SiC) and 150nm Gallium Arsenide (GaAs).Continuous Wave (CW) measured power results of the Transmit path (Tx) demonstrates a maximum output power (POUT,Tx) higher than 2W (33.5dBm) with 25% drain efficiency (DE), 24% power added efficiency (PAE), and 36dB of insertion gain (GI,Tx) in the 24-31GHz bandwidth. The receiver path (Rx) presents an maximum output power (POUT,Rx) of 30mW (15.5dBm) and an average Noise Figure (NF) of 3.6dB with an associated Insertion Gain (GI,Rx) of 20dB in the same bandwidth.The HPFE/Tx linearity has been investigated with several M-QAM modulation signals with 25/50 and 100MHz channel spacing and using Digital Pre-Distortion (DPD) leading to 48dBc Adjacent Channel Leakage Ratio (ACLR) and 40dB Mean Squared Error (MSE) for average output powers ranging from 17dBm to 25dBm. The linearity performances have been compared to the ones obtained with two other linear GaAs amplifiers (PA1 and PA2) dedicated to point to point telecommunications application: the HPFE presents similar linearity performances associated to a higher efficiency.Thanks to the mixed technologies approach, an optimized trade-off in terms of integration, electrical performances and cost has been demonstrated.