Toshiba America Electronic Components, Inc. announced the industry's first internally matched 60 watt (W) C-Band gallium arsenide field effect transistor (GaAs FET). The new C-Band GaAs FET has output power of 48.0 dBm (typical) at a frequency range of 5.9 to 6.4 gigahertz (GHz). The new TIM5964-60SL is the highest output power C-Band GaAs FETs available in the microwave device industry today.

In achieving the new 60W C-Band's high power, Toshiba implemented its new Hetrojunction Field Effect Transistor (HFET) process technology. The HFET process is a promising candidate for microwave higher power devices due to its performance and the increase in power and gain. Since HFETs have higher Schottky barrier height than GaAs MESFETs do, HFET enables the achievement of improved gate breakdown voltage (BVgd) with reduced gate leakage current, which is key for higher power devices.

"Toshiba is continuing to focus it resources on high power matched GaAs FETs within each frequency range to service the North American market," said Abdul Aslami, business development manager, Toshiba's Microwave and RF Products. "With the development of the 60W C-Band device we are able to offer communication systems designers the best performance currently available in the market."

The new device is optimized for use in solid-state power amplifiers for satellite earth-station communication transmitters (SATCOM) and very small aperture terminals (VSAT). The TIM5964-60SL is also targeted for use in other wireless communications, as well as point-to-point radio applications. Providing superior power capability and featuring the same packaging as previous generation parts, the 60W C-Band GaAs FET eliminates the need for significant redesign changes.

The new high-power 60W C-Band GaAs FET allows designers to achieve the power ratings necessary to boost signal strength using fewer components, thereby resulting in lower system cost. The device also helps to reduce the level of intermodulation distortion and harmonic spurious signals in satellite communications systems.

60W C-Band Product Specifications:

Part Number	TIM5964-60SL
Frequency	5.9 ý 6.4GHz
P1dB	48.0 (dBm) (typ)
G1dB	8.5 (dB) (typ)
IDS1	13.2 (A) (typ)
hadd	41 (%) (typ)
IM3	-45 (dBc) (typ)
IDS2	11.8 (A) (max)

This is a wonderful jump in output power from a GaAs amplifier. It knocks a lot of tube devices out of contention in the C-band market place where 48 dBm is enough for a lot, if not most, applications. Toshiba has been demonstrating superb achievements with GaAs across the spectrum and this is a further sign of its intentions of dominating the output stage market for the high-volume communications markets.

With this oputput power and simplified circuitry because of the internal matching, the TIM5964 will be readily adopted into designs. The gain is reasonable and with a 10-W driver (to leave some headroom) the overall design for the complete RF chain for a VSAT application is really straightforward with few components. The efficiency is respectable and the linearity is extremely good.