A 600-W C-Band Amplifier Using Spatially Combined GaAs FETs

Author

Than, H.T. ; Sun, G.W. ; Cuellar, G.S. ; Zeng, J. ; Schultz, N.T. ; Moya, M.E. ; Chung, Y. ; Deckman, B.C. ; DeLisio, M.P.

Author_Institution

Wavestream Corp., San Dimas, CA, USA

fYear

2011

fDate

16-19 Oct. 2011

Firstpage

1

Lastpage

4

Abstract

This paper describes the design and performance of a C-band amplifier with over 600 Watts of saturated output power. This amplifier is intended for use in commercial broadcast satellite uplink base stations. The amplifier uses spatial power combining to combine the output powers of sixteen internally matched 45-W GaAs FETs. The amplifier also comprises pre-amplification and driver amplification stages, a level control variable attenuator, and a predistortion linearizer. The unit also includes a power supply as well as a user monitor and control interface. We will present various measures of this amplifier´s linearity performance, demonstrating its suitability for use in broadcast applications.

Keywords

III-V semiconductors; attenuators; field effect integrated circuits; gallium arsenide; microwave amplifiers; C-band amplifier; GaAs; commercial broadcast satellite uplink base stations; control interface; driver amplification stage; internally matched FET; level control variable attenuator; power 45 W; power 600 W; power supply; pre-amplification stage; predistortion linearizer; saturated output power; spatial power combining; spatially combined FET; user monitor; FETs; Gain; Gallium arsenide; Power amplifiers; Power generation; Satellite broadcasting; Satellites;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Compound Semiconductor Integrated Circuit Symposium (CSICS), 2011 IEEE

Conference_Location

Waikoloa, HI

ISSN

1550-8781

Print_ISBN

978-1-61284-711-5

Electronic_ISBN

1550-8781

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/CSICS.2011.6062434

Filename

6062434