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Significant improvements made last year in performance, process qualification and manufacturing, has propelled gallium nitride (GaN)-based power transistors to the production phase. Driven by mobile wireless infrastructure and WiMAX base station applications in the commercial sector, as well as those in the ISM band, military and commercial avionics, this year will see several developers unveiling parts that are ready for deployment. Although last year was considered as transitional for GaN, this year is forecasted to experience acceleration in sales and upward movement in frequency.

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Toward that goal, RF power transistor supplier Nitronex announced at the last WiMAX World that its GaN-on-silicon manufacturing process with 0.5 micron lithography is fully qualified for volume production. As a result, the supplier released the first three members of its GaN high electron mobility transistor (HEMT) family for use in power amplifiers operating in the 3.3 GHz to 3.8 GHz and 2.3 GHz to 2.7 GHz bands of the WiMAX market. According to Nitronex, they offer high gain, high efficiency and high linearity, along with broadband operation. While NPT35050 is a 50 W, 28 V device with an average output power of 6 W from 3.3 GHz to 3.8 GHz and a saturated power output at 3.5 GHz of 65 W, the NPT35015 and NPT25015 are 15 W, 28 V power transistors operating from 3.3 GHz to 3.8 GHz and 2.3 GHz to 2.7 GHz, respectively. These GaN power transistors exploit small, low-cost plastic overmold packaging (Figure 1).

Leveraging higher-voltage operation and advanced thermal management techniques, Nitronex is planning to add much higher power members this year. The aim is to unveil parts that offer >100 W CW power at higher voltage. For that, the manufacturer is qualifying the process at 48 V operation, and addressing issues such as thermal management, packaging and thinner substrates.