A Directly Matched PA-Integrated K-band Antenna for Efficient mm-Wave High-Power Generation
Journal article, 2019

A K-band slot antenna element with integrated GaN (Gallium nitride) power amplifier (PA) is presented. It has been optimized through a circuit-EM co-design methodology to directly match the transistor drain output to its optimal load impedance ( Zopt=17+j46Ω ) while accounting for the over-the-air coupling effects in the vicinity of the transition between the PA and antenna. This obviates the need for using a potentially lossy and bandwidth-limiting output impedance matching network. The measured PA-integrated antenna gain of 15 dBi with a 40% total efficiency at 28 dBm output power agrees well with the theoretically achievable performance targets. The proposed element is compact ( 0.6×0.5×0.3 λ3 ), and thus well-suited to meet the high-performance demands of future emerging beamforming active antenna array applications.

antenna array element

power amplifiers

gallium nitride (GaN)

antenna-circuit co-design

active integrated antennas

K-band

millimeter-wave antennas

Author

Wan-Chun Liao

Chalmers, Electrical Engineering, Communication, Antennas and Optical Networks

Rob Maaskant

Eindhoven University of Technology

Chalmers, Electrical Engineering, Communication, Antennas and Optical Networks

Thomas Emanuelsson

Chalmers, Microtechnology and Nanoscience (MC2), Microwave Electronics

Vessen Vassilev

Chalmers, Microtechnology and Nanoscience (MC2), Microwave Electronics

Oleg Iupikov

Chalmers, Electrical Engineering, Communication, Antennas and Optical Networks

Marianna Ivashina

Chalmers, Electrical Engineering, Communication, Antennas and Optical Networks

IEEE Antennas and Wireless Propagation Letters

1536-1225 (ISSN) 15485757 (eISSN)

Vol. 18 11 2389-2393 8811583

Areas of Advance

Information and Communication Technology

Subject Categories

Telecommunications

Communication Systems

Other Electrical Engineering, Electronic Engineering, Information Engineering

DOI

10.1109/LAWP.2019.2937235

More information

Latest update

2/25/2021