IOT performance and reliability study

When L-3 started manufacturing IOTs in 1998 the expected lifetime for an IOT was thought to be on the order of 4 years. We have been monitoring the installation of over 500 IOTs and MSDC IOTs. We will review early infant mortality causes and the subsequent corrective actions taken to more than double the average life and MTBF over the last decade. With the latest generation of UHF DTV Broadcast exciters even higher levels of DC to RF conversion efficiencies are now possible. We will review previously published data for L-3´s Constant Efficiency Amplifier (CEA), and data taken recently showing a more than 10% improvement in DC to RF conversion efficiency.