They have doubled the operating voltage of the components from 50 V to 100 V, thus achieving a power efficiency of 77.3 %. With this technology, it is now possible to develop highly efficient amplifiers with even higher power, as required for applications in the fields of plasma generation, industrial heating, communication and radar technologies.

Through vertical and lateral scaling of the transistor design, it has been possible for the first time in Europe to realize high frequency transistors suitable for applications with an operating voltage of 100 V. This increase in operating voltage enables higher power densities. A system can therefore deliver more power on the same area.

The high performance has already been proven in the laboratory for the frequency range of 1-2 GHz: Measurements showed a power density of more than 17 W/mm and a power-added efficiency (PAE) of 77.3% at a frequency of 1.0 GHz – the highest power efficiency achieved for 100 V operation in this frequency range.

The long-term goal of the researchers at Fraunhofer IAF is to operate at up to 10 GHz. This enables, among other things, the further technological development of high-performance applications such as particle accelerators, industrial microwave heaters, mobile phone amplifiers, pulse and continuous wave radars, and amplifiers for plasma generators. As a rule, such systems require a great deal of power while at the same time requiring only a small volume of components – in other words, exactly what 100 V technology is supposed to enable.