Fujitsu Ltd. and Fujitsu laboratories of Tokyo and Kawasaki, Japan respectively, announced the development of a power amplifier using gallium nitride (GaN) high electron mobility transistors (HEMT) that puts out 1.3W for wireless communications in the millimeter-wave W-band.

According to the company this HEMT has the world's highest output for the millimeter-wave W-band. The company expects that the millimeter-wave W-band will be widely used in the future.

Fujitsu boasts that the new amplifier will offer transmission output equivalent to approximately 16 times that of existing amplifiers that use gallium-arsenide (GaAs), thereby enabling W-band transmission ranges to be extended by approximately six times. Fujitsu says its new GaN HEMT-based power amplifier will make high-capacity wireless communications possible in regions in which it is unfeasible to lay optical fiber cables, in addition to ensuring high-quality communications in rain and under other conditions where the millimeter-wave signal is known to attenuate.

Part of this research was conducted under contract for the Research and Development Project for Expansion of Radio Spectrum Resources of Japan's Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications. Details of the technology were presented at the 2010 IEEE Compound Semiconductor IC Symposium (CSICS), held in Monterey, California from October 3-6, 2010.