Automated Test Equipment for High Power Solid State Device Development and Characterization

This paper describes an automated High Power Amplifier Test System (HPATS) specially designed for tuning, testing and characterization of high power solid state devices during their development. In the 1.0 to 17.0 GHz bandwidth, Si Bipolar, Si MOSFET and GaAs FET transistors with output power up to 150 W for the lower end and up to 25 W for the higher end of the band can be tested. The system has a one-octave instantaneous bandwidth and can operate from 1.0 GHz to 17.0 GHz in four different bands. The base of this equipment, which is low power, covers a 0.5 to 20.0 GHz band, while each of the associated power sections that deliver the input power to the device under test, covers a one-octave bandwidth. For tuning purposes, the Input Return Loss and the Gain versus frequency can be seen in real time. The measurement capabilities of this system include a one-tone test in three modes and a two-tone test in two modes. The one-tone test includes the standard power measurements (Pin, Pout, Gain, Gss, Gain Compression, Phase, Currents, Drain/Collector Efficiency and Power-Added Efficiency) as well as the transmission phase. The two equal tone test includes the measurement of IMD3, IMD5 and IMD7. GaAs FET devices can be biased automatically and the other devices are biased manually. This presentation describes the equipment and exemplifies its capabilities by showing actual data obtained from the measurement of S-band 30 W GaAs FET devices.