High power GaN-HEMT microwave switches for X-Band and wideband applications

Abstract

In this article the design, fabrication and test of X-band and 2-18 GHz wideband high power SPDT MMIC switches in GaN technology are presented. Said switches have demonstrated state-of-the-art performance and RF fabrication yields better than 65%. In particular the X-band switch exhibits an on-state power handling capability of better than 37 dBm at the 1 dB insertion loss compression point and the wideband switch shows an insertion loss compression of 1 dB for input power higher than 34.3 dBm in the entire bandwidth.