The design aspects and performance of a cost efficient 2 Watt Ku-band power amplifier are presented. The circuit is fabricated with 0.5-µm GaAs PHEMT technology and standard plastic QFN package. The PA MMIC integrates on-chip power detector with 45-dB dynamic range for output power monitoring and EOS/ESD protections for rugged and reliable operation. The presented compact design considerations can be applied to greatly reduce manufacturing cost in other circuits and technologies (e.g. GaN).
