Title :
100W X-band GaN SSPA for medium power TWTA replacement
Author :
Casto, Matthew ; Lampenfeld, Mark ; Jia, Pengcheng ; Courtney, Patrick ; Behan, Scott ; Daughenbaugh, Paul ; Worley, Rick
Author_Institution :
Air Force Res. Labs., Wright-Patterson AFB, OH, USA
Abstract :
This paper reports an X-band solid-state power amplifier with an initial output power of 180W at 9.5 GHz and greater than 100 watts measured over an 8 to 11 GHz bandwidth after burn-in. These SOA results were achieved by combining 16 GaN amplifier modules in a low-loss spatial power combiner network. The combining structure has shown a port to port loss of 0.25-0.75 dB from 8GHz to 12 GHz. The 16-way combiner demonstrates an overall combining efficiency of 90%. The size of the 16-way amplifier/combiner is 2.2" dia. × 6" length. This work represents the widest bandwidth operation of a GaN combiner technology to applications at X-band, and establishes new levels of power and efficiency for solid-state power amplifiers operating at these bandwidths.
Keywords :
III-V semiconductors; gallium compounds; microwave power amplifiers; power combiners; travelling wave amplifiers; wide band gap semiconductors; 16-way amplifier-combiner; GaN; X-band solid-state power amplifier; bandwidth 8 GHz to 11 GHz; efficiency 90 percent; frequency 8 GHz to 12 GHz; loss 0.25 dB to 0.75 dB; low-loss spatial power combiner network; medium power TWTA replacement; power 100 W; power 180 W; traveling wave tube amplifiers; Arrays; Broadband communication; Driver circuits; Gallium nitride; HEMTs; Heating; MMICs; GaN; High Efficiency; Solid-State Power Amplifier; Spatial Power Combiner; X-band;
Conference_Titel :
Wireless and Microwave Technology Conference (WAMICON), 2011 IEEE 12th Annual
Conference_Location :
Clearwater Beach, FL
Print_ISBN :
978-1-61284-081-9
DOI :
10.1109/WAMICON.2011.5872886
