Connecting the solar system

Space communications systems that are essential to a range of ambitious future missions are being developed by NASA. A report on a recent advancement, a prototype of an effi cient Ka-band microwave power combiner that sums the outputs from two unequal gallium arsenide power amplifi ers to boost the overall output power, is presented in this issue of Electronics Letters by E. Wintucky, R. Simons, J. Freeman (NASA) and C. Chevalier (QinetiQ North America).