Nitronex Announces GaN-on-Si Broadband Doherty PA For WiMAX Applications

Chicago -- Nitronex has partnered with Prescient Wireless to design a GaN-on-Si broadband Doherty power amplifier for WiMAX applications. Based on Nitronex's existing NPT25015 power transistor, the design provides 6W of linear output power from 2.5 to 2.7GHz while achieving >35% efficiency, 10dB gain, and <2.0% EVM with digital pre-distortion.

"The inherent low output capacitance and high efficiency of GaN-on-Si are a natural fit for the Doherty architecture. Carriers are asking for higher efficiency and broader bandwidth at the same time. It is exciting to achieve industry leading results that directly apply to their problem statement," said Ray Crampton, Marketing Director at Nitronex. "We are currently collaborating with Prescient Wireless on a reference design based on our 125W NPT25100. Preliminary results show a similar level of performance is achievable at much higher output powers."

Typical performance numbers were taken using a mobile WiMAX waveform defined as a single carrier OFDMA 64-QAM ¾ with a 10MHz channel bandwidth. 6 Watts of output power is achieved with a 9.5dB PAR @ .01% probability on the CCDF during the transmit portion of a 50% duty cycle TTD signal.

SOURCE: Nitronex