Qorvo® is now shipping the industry’s first commercially available family of electronically reconfigurable dual-band (S- and X-Band) GaN power amplifiers (PAs). These patented PAs support a revolutionary shift in radar architecture for defense, weather and commercial avionics.

The QPA0007 and QPA0004 are the first commercially available GaN PAs that can be rapidly reconfigured for operation between S- and X-Bands. This enables a single radar platform to be used across multiple applications, offering precise long-range and short-range capabilities. This eliminates the need for independent systems, saving size, weight, power and cost. Now designers can dramatically reduce the BOM and footprint by as much as 50 percent while improving overall performance. The QPA0007 and QPA0004 are available in surface mount technology (SMT) packaging and offer higher saturated power and power-added efficiency when compared to traditional switched dual-band solutions.

Eric Higham, Advanced Semiconductor Applications/Advanced Defense Systems Service director at Strategy Analytics, said, “The defense industry is evolving toward a ‘more with less’ strategy and this places a premium on system performance and flexibility. The capabilities and performance advantages of GaN technology make it attractive in all defense applications, particularly radar. Qorvo’s long heritage and leadership in GaN technology and defense applications allow them to develop innovative products like these that will support and enable emerging dual-band radar solutions.”

Roger Hall, general manager of Qorvo’s High Performance Systems, said, “Defense and commercial customers count on Qorvo’s world-class GaN solutions, and the QPA0007 and QPA0004 are testament to our engineering team’s passion for innovation. Today’s announcement reveals another industry milestone for Qorvo, the first commercially available, reconfigurable GaN PAs that support S-band and X-band radar. This new family of products streamlines next-generation radar designs.”

The QPA0007 and QPA0004 are now sampling to qualified customers. These GaN devices are optimized for manufacturability and offered in small 7 x 6 mm and 7 x 4 mm QFN, SMT packages.