White Paper: A Comparison Of GaN Vs GaAs System Performance

Written by Michael Schefter, Chief Scientist and Mehdi Ardavan,  RF Design Engineer at Norsat International, the paper reflects on understanding and quantifying the differences between GaN and GaAs amplifiers and the Impact on System Performance.  Traditionally RF power amplifiers used GaAs technology which has a well behaved and understood performance. Over the past few years, GaN technology is replacing GaAs because GaN is more efficient and has a higher power density resulting in higher power MMICs and FETs. To better understand and quantify the differences between GaN and GaAs amplifiers and the impact of this on system performance, some amplifier and system measurements were taken. The findings are documented in the white paper, published in the recent edition of Microwave Journal.