White Paper: WiMAX Amplifiers And Their Application

By Jerry Lee, Chief Technical Officer of Wireless Products, MicroWave Technology, Inc. (MwT)
With the demand for wireless personal communications growing exponentially, complex modulation schemes have been deployed that offer the spectral efficiency to support the demand with fixed spectrum. Since the semiconductor era uses III-V and IV elements, the RF amplifier technology has generated an array of devices. From Si-bipolar, to GaAs MESFET, to GaAs HBT, to silicon LDMOS, to GaAs HFET, and now wide bandgap devices such as SiC MESFET and, on the horizon, GaN HEMT devices, the choices for power amplifier technology is broad. This paper proposes the use of GaAs MESFET because of its excellent linearity and power gain.