New Industry Products

Nitronex Announces New Family of Power Transistors for Broadband Applications

October 31, 2006 by Jeff Shepard

Nitronex Corp. announced the first two in a series of parts from its broadband product line of transistors that leverage the inherent wide bandgap properties of Gallium Nitride to deliver exceptional bandwidth capability. The new Nitronex RF power transistors – the NPTB00025 and the NPTB00050 – are well-suited for applications requiring high power and broad bandwidth, such as public safety radio networks, medical instrumentation and a variety of military systems.

The NPTB00025 delivers saturated power of 25W at 3GHz and 28V with small signal gain of 13.5dB and drain efficiency of 65%. The NPTB00050 will provide 50W at 3GHz and 28V with small signal gain of 11.5dB and drain efficiency of 60%. A large signal, non-linear model, THE NPTB00050, is also available for both products in either ADS or Microwave Office compatible formats. Both products work from as high as 3.8GHz to as a low as 125MHz and are made possible, in part, by the company's previously qualified Gallium Nitride (GaN)-on-Silicon process, NRF1.

"GaN power transistors will be a critical technology for high power, broadband amplifiers," said Walter Koprowski, VP Business Development of Comtech PST. "We are pleased to see Nitronex commercializing its GaN on Silicon technology into products that are attractive for our business."

"Nitronex continues to be at the forefront of commercializing GaN technology," said Kevin Linthicum, CTO and VP of Engineering for Nitronex. "These RF transistors are designed to exploit the larger impedances offered by our GaN-on-Si HEMT technology allowing our customers the design ease and freedom to optimize for power, gain and high efficiency over very wide bandwidths. Nitronex is committed to the RF power market and in the coming months we will unveil higher power versions of these parts, including devices developed in Gemini packages."

The NPTB00025 and NPTB00050 are now production released with availability beginning in late November. Production lead time is seven weeks from order entry. Large signal models, either in ADS or Microwave Office formats, are available upon request.