UHF GaN SSPA for space applications

Author

Katz, Allen ; Eggleston, Brian ; McGee, David ; MacDonald, John

Author_Institution

Coll. of New Jersey, Ewing, NJ, USA

fYear

2010

fDate

10-14 Jan. 2010

Firstpage

108

Lastpage

111

Abstract

A new UHF Solid State Power Amplifier (SSPA) has been developed for use in government mobile communications space programs. Predistortion linearization combined with high-voltage gallium nitride (GaN) FET technology allows the simultaneous achievement of both linearity and record high linear efficiency. This SSPA is capable of a peak power of more than 170 watts, but will be operated at a lower power (60 watts) to provide the reliability required for service in space and the linearity needed for WCDMA operation. A power added efficiency (PAE) of greater than 60% was achieved at this operating point.

Keywords

III-V semiconductors; code division multiple access; field effect transistors; gallium compounds; mobile communication; space communication links; wide band gap semiconductors; FET technology; GaN; UHF solid state power amplifier; WCDMA; government mobile communications space programs; power 60 W; power added efficiency; predistortion linearization; FETs; Gallium nitride; Government; III-V semiconductor materials; Linearity; Mobile communication; Power amplifiers; Predistortion; Solid state circuits; Space technology; GaN; UHF; WCDMA; high efficiency; linearizer; power amplifiers; satellite;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Radio and Wireless Symposium (RWS), 2010 IEEE

Conference_Location

New Orleans, LA

Print_ISBN

978-1-4244-4725-1

Electronic_ISBN

978-1-4244-4726-8

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/RWS.2010.5434222

Filename

5434222