Nitronex LLC of Morrisville, NC, USA, which designs and makes gallium nitride on silicon (GaN-on-Si)-based RF power transistors for the defense, communications, broadband, and industrial markets, has launched the NPA1006, a 28V, 20MHz-1GHz, 15W broadband GaN amplifier with 14dB gain and 60% drain efficiency housed in an industry-standard 6mm by 5mm DFN plastic package.
The NPA1006 is the latest addition to Nitronex's integrated amplifier family that offers low-cost, high-performance GaN devices in industry-standard surface-mount plastic packages. The thermal resistance is 4.6°C/W (best in class for this power level, it is claimed). The amplifier input is internally matched to 50 Ohms for easy integration and the output needs just a simple two-element external match for full band coverage. The NPA1006 uses Nitronex's 28V NRF1 GaN HEMT process, which has been in production since 2006. Samples and evaluation boards are available now.
"In the coming months, Nitronex will further expand our product offering by releasing additional integrated amplifiers covering different bandwidths and power levels using our proven GaN-on-silicon technology," says president & CEO Greg Baker.
Nitronex's patented SIGANTIC GaN-on-Si process is claimed to be the only production-qualified GaN process using an industry-standard 4-inch silicon substrate. This allows for a robust, scalable supply chain and positions Nitronex well for the expected growth in emerging GaN markets such as military communications, broadband, radar, commercial wireless, satellite communications and point to point microwave, the firm reckons.
