Sixty-percent-efficient miniature C-band vacuum power booster for the microwave power module

Author

Whaley, D.R. ; Armstrong, C.M. ; Gannon, B. ; Groshart, G. ; Hurt, E. ; Hutchins, J. ; Roscoe, M. ; Antonsen, Thomas M., Jr. ; Levush, Baruch

Author_Institution

Electron. & Syste. Integration Div., Northrop Grumman Corp., Rolling Meadows, IL, USA

Volume

26

Issue

3

fYear

1998

fDate

6/1/1998 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

912

Lastpage

921

Abstract

Results from a high-efficiency miniaturized C-band vacuum power booster (VPB) development program have resulted in the development of a miniature C-band traveling wave tube (TWT) operating at 32% circuit efficiency and 61% total efficiency at an output power in excess of 170 W at 100% duty factor. When combined with a microwave power module, this VPB results in a module DC-to-RF conversion efficiency of 51%. This high-efficiency power amplifier is particularly well suited for space and airborne applications where small size, light weight, and low thermal dissipation are required. Other parallel development of VPB´s operating at lower perveance and higher power has also been pursued and has resulted in nearly identical performance of 32% circuit efficiency and 61% total efficiency at power levels in excess of 240 W at 100% duty factor. A new TWT interaction code, CHRISTINE, is benchmarked with experimental data from several of these VPB´s. Simulated performance is seen to accurately predict experimental data

Keywords

microwave integrated circuits; microwave power amplifiers; travelling wave amplifiers; travelling wave tubes; vacuum microelectronics; 100 percent; 170 W; 240 W; 32 percent; 51 percent; 61 percent; CHRISTINE code; TWT interaction code; airborne applications; circuit efficiency; duty factor; high-efficiency miniaturized C-band vacuum power booster; high-efficiency power amplifier; microwave power module; miniature C-band traveling wave tube; miniature C-band vacuum power booster; module DC-to-RF conversion efficiency; output power; power levels; size; space applications; thermal dissipation; total efficiency; traveling wave tube; Circuits; Electron tubes; High power amplifiers; Microwave devices; Multichip modules; Phased arrays; Power amplifiers; Radar applications; Radar tracking; Radio frequency;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Plasma Science, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0093-3813

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/27.700870

Filename

700870