Latest 50V plastic GaN HEMTs target LTE and radar applications

Wolfspeed, a Cree company, has introduced two new plastic-packaged 50V/60W GaN HEMT devices that provide the intrinsic GaN value of power and bandwidth in a low-cost package. Supplied in miniature (4.5mm x 6.5mm), economical, plastic SMT packages, the devices are ideal for LTE, small cell base transceiver station (BTS), radar, public safety radio, and other communications applications, says the company. The CGHV27060MP is a 50V/60W broadband GaN HEMT with both linear and pulsed applications circuits and no internal input or output match, which allows it to support a wide range of frequencies spanning UHF through 2.7GHz. Tested at 2.5GHz, the new GaN HEMT is well suited for LTE micro base station amplifiers with 10–15W average power and high efficiency topologies, such as Doherty or Class A, B, and F amplifiers. Utilizing an S-Band radar circuit, the 50V device provides 16.5dB gain, 70% drain efficiency, and 80W output power at pulsed PSAT with a 100µs pulse width and 10% duty cycle. At 14W PAVE, the device delivers 18.5dB gain, 35% efficiency. This miniature plastic-packaged transistor is also capable of 65W of continuous wave (CW) output power when used in high efficiency amplifier designs. Internally pre-matched on input, and unmatched on output, the CGHV35060MP is a 50V/60W broadband GaN HEMT designed for operation from 2.7GHz to 3.5GHz. Tested at 3.3GHz, the miniature device exhibits 14.5dB gain with 67% drain efficiency, and is optimized for S-Band applications, including: weather, air traffic control, marine, port surveillance, and search and rescue radar applications. Additionally, both of the new 50V GaN HEMTs are compatible with industry standard digital pre-distortion (DPD) correction methods to increase amplifier efficiency, and their miniature (4.5mm x 6.5mm), plastic over-mould packaging makes them an economical solution for higher volume applications. Fabricated on a SiC substrate with a 0.4µm process, Wolfspeed’s GaN-on-SiC HEMTs exhibit superior performance characteristics compared to silicon (Si) and gallium arsenide (GaAs), including higher breakdown voltage, saturated electron drift velocity, and thermal conductivity. The GaN HEMTs also offer greater power density and wider bandwidths than Si, GaAs, and GaN-on-Si transistors.