GaN HEMT RF power devices handle 250 W, work up to 3 GHz

Wolfspeed, A Cree Company and a leading global supplier of GaN-on-SiC high electron mobility transistors (HEMTs) and monolithic microwave integrated circuits (MMICs) with best-in-class reliability, has extended its family of 50V unmatched GaN HEMT RF power devices by adding a 250W part with a frequency range up to 3.0GHz and the highest efficiency of any comparably-rated GaN device available, enabling RF design engineers to use fewer components to design smaller and lighter linear amplifier circuits for commercial and military wireless communications and S-band radar applications.

The new 50V GaN HEMT devices provide a combination of high power and high gain with high efficiency operation, making it possible for RF design engineers to replace several lower-power GaN HEMTs or multiple silicon LDMOS devices with a single device in their power amplifier designs. Packaged in a four-leaded metal-flanged ceramic “Gemini” package, the new 250W GaN HEMTs operate efficiently at full rated power, reducing the need for complex thermal management systems.

Their higher power and efficiency rating, combined with a frequency range up to 3.0GHz, makes these devices ideal for a wide range of RF linear and compressed amplifier circuits, including those for military communications systems, radar equipment (UHF, L-, S-band), electronic warfare (EW) systems, as well as RF applications in the industrial, medical, and scientific (ISM) band.

“The addition of these new 250W GaN HEMT devices to our 50V product line enables Wolfspeed to deliver new levels of power and efficiency to our RF customers,” said Jim Milligan, RF and microwave director, Wolfspeed. “Now, RF engineers can simplify their power amplifier designs by replacing multiple power devices with a single part, reducing their component count and making their amplifiers smaller and lighter.”

The CGHV40200PP is a 50V unmatched GaN HEMT device rated for 250W, 3.0GHz operation with 67% efficiency (at P_SAT) and 21dB small signal gain at 1.8GHz.

Compared to conventional silicon (Si) and gallium arsenide (GaAs) devices, Wolfspeed’s GaN-on-SiC RF devices deliver higher breakdown voltage, higher temperature operation, higher efficiency, higher thermal conductivity, higher power density, and wider bandwidths, all of which are critical for achieving smaller, lighter, and more efficient microwave and RF products. Wolfspeed^™ GaN-on-SiC RF devices enable next-generation broadband, public safety, and ISM (industrial, scientific, and medical) amplifiers; broadcast, satellite, and tactical communications amplifiers; UAV data links; test instrumentation; and two-way private radios.

The CGHV40200PP GaN HEMTs are now in volume production and are available immediately from Wolfspeed distributors Digi-Key and Mouser.