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RF Micro Devices Inc. has announced the introduction and sampling of Gallium Nitride (GaN) wideband power amplifier ICs to tier 1 WiMAX, cellular base station and public mobile radio (PMR) customers. RFMD says the family achieves superior performance in gain, output power and efficiency across a broad range of frequencies as compared to currently available gallium arsenide (GaAs) and silicon LDMOS products.

The new family includes multiple parts, RF3821 (8 W P1 dB WiMAX PA, 2.3 GHz to 2.7 GHz), RF 3823 (8 W P1 dB WiMAX PA, 3.3 GHz to 3.8 GHz), RF3822 (14 W saturated power public mobile radio PA, 100 MHz to 1000 MHz), and RF 3820 (8 W P1 dB cellular PA, 1.8 GHz to 2.2 GHz). Both WiMAX power amplifier ICs provide 29 dBm linear output power with 2.5% EVM and flat gain of 11 dB across multiple bands. The cellular power amplifier IC provides 27 dBm linear output power with -50 dBc ACPR and flat gain of 13 dB across DCS/PCS/WCDMA frequency bands. The PMR power amplifier IC provides 14 W to 12 W saturated output power and flat gain of 11.5 dB with PAE of 65% mid band at 500 MHz. The designs operate on a 28 V rail and include internal-matching elements to deliver a 50 Ohm interface over the band of operation and are packaged in a thermally enhanced AlN package for efficient heat removal.

RFMD anticipates production shipments of the GaN power amplifiers will commence in calendar year 2007.