High power and efficiency space traveling-wave tube amplifiers with reduced size and mass for NASA missions

Author

Simons, Rainee N. ; Wilson, Jeffrey D. ; Force, Dale A.

Author_Institution

NASA Glenn Research Center, 21000 Brookpark Road, Cleveland, Ohio 44135, USA

fYear

2008

fDate

15-20 June 2008

Firstpage

319

Lastpage

322

Abstract

Recent advances in high power and efficiency space traveling-wave tube amplifiers (TWTAs) for NASApsilas space-to-Earth communications are presented in this paper. The RF power and efficiency of a new K-Band amplifier is 40 Watts and 50% and that of a new Ka-Band amplifier is 200 Watts and 60%. An important figure-of-merit, which is defined as the ratio of the RF power output to the mass (W/kg) of a TWT has improved by a factor of ten over the previous generation Ka-band devices.

Keywords

microwave amplifiers; microwave tubes; millimetre wave tubes; power amplifiers; satellite communication; space communication links; travelling wave tubes; Ka-band devices; NASA missions; RF power output; efficiency 50 percent; efficiency 60 percent; figure-of-merit; microwave power amplifiers; millimeter wave power amplifiers; millimeter wave tubes; power 200 W; power 40 W; satellite communication; space traveling-wave tube amplifiers; space-to-Earth communications; High power amplifiers; K-band; Microwave communication; NASA; Power amplifiers; Radio frequency; Radiofrequency amplifiers; Space exploration; Space missions; Space technology; Amplifiers; Microwave power amplifiers; Millimeter wave power amplifiers; Millimeter wave tubes; Power conditioning; Satellite communication; Space technology; Traveling wave tubes;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Microwave Symposium Digest, 2008 IEEE MTT-S International

Conference_Location

Atlanta, GA

ISSN

0149-645X

Print_ISBN

978-1-4244-1780-3

Electronic_ISBN

0149-645X

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/MWSYM.2008.4633167

Filename

4633167