Experimental large-signal performance of a dual-fed band-pass distributed amplifier

Band-pass distributed amplifiers can provide optimum power performance through the proper design of the phase shifts of the unit cells and by using the so-called dual-fed configuration. In this contribution, the experimental non-linear performance of such an amplifier is described. Measurements have been taken on a 3-stage band-pass distributed amplifier prototype at 1 GHz for two different configurations: single-fed and dual-fed. The experimental results for output power, power added efficiency and intermodulation distortion ratio are presented. The measurements taken on the dual-fed amplifier have confirmed the improvements in output power, overall gain, and power added efficiency in respect to the single-fed version. On the other hand, the single-fed amplifier exhibits a better linearity.