At European Microwave Week (EuMW 2015) in Paris, France (8–10 September), M/A-COM Technology Solutions Inc of Lowell, MA, USA (which makes semiconductors, components and subassemblies for analog RF, microwave, millimeter-wave and photonic applications) announced that it is sampling the NPT2024, a wideband transistor optimized for DC-2.7 GHz operation using MACOM's proprietary gallium nitride on silicon (GaN on Si) process. The NPT2024 supports CW, pulsed and linear operation, with output levels up to 200W.
Providing 50V operation, 16dB of power gain and 60% drain efficiency at 1500MHz, the 100% RF-tested HEMT D-mode transistor is available in an industry-standard plastic package with bolt-down flange. The NPT2024 is suitable for defense communications, land mobile radio, avionics, wireless infrastructure, ISM (industrial, scientific & medical) applications and UHF/L-band radar.
"The technical performance of MACOM's NPT2024 complements our expanding GaN portfolio, which offers the industry with a broad GaN offering boasting high performance, gain, efficiency and affordability," reckons senior product director Gary Lopes.
Delivering performance that is claimed to rival expensive GaN on silicon carbide (GaN on SiC) at a projected volume production cost structure below that of incumbent LDMOS technology, MACOM's 4th generation GaN (Gen4 GaN) technology delivers greater than 70% peak efficiency and 19dB gain for modulated signals at 2.7GHz, which is similar to GaN-on-SiC technologies, and more than 10 percentage points greater efficiency than LDMOS. It also delivers power density that is more than four times that of LDMOS.
