Resonant pulse-shaping power supply for radar transmitters

Author

Rodriguez, M. ; Roberg, Michael ; Pack, R. ; Fernandez, Pilar ; Alarcon, Eduard ; Popovic, Zoya ; Maksimovic, Dragan

Author_Institution

ECEE Dept., Univ. of Colorado at Boulder, Boulder, CO, USA

fYear

2012

fDate

4-6 Sept. 2012

Abstract

The final radiofrequency power amplifier (PA) of a radar transmitter module is a large factor in system efficiency. Typical radar transmitter signals are frequency-modulated with constant-amplitude pulse envelopes in order to optimize efficiency, resulting in spectral broadening and power radiated outside of the radar frequency band. This paper demonstrates a PA with a dynamic power supply which enables high efficiency while reducing the spectral emissions. The resonant pulse-shaping power supply generates a raised-cosine pulse envelope waveform with efficiency greater than 90% and peak envelope power around 6 W. Measured results with a 2.14-GHz GaN power amplifier with an efficiency of 76% at peak power demonstrate over 67% transmitter efficiency.

Keywords

III-V semiconductors; UHF power amplifiers; frequency modulation; gallium compounds; pulsed power supplies; radar signal processing; radar transmitters; resonant power convertors; wide band gap semiconductors; GaN; PA dynamic power supply; constant-amplitude pulse envelopes; efficiency 76 percent; frequency 2.14 GHz; frequency modulation; radar frequency band; radar transmitter module; radar transmitter signals; radiofrequency power amplifier; raised-cosine pulse envelope waveform; resonant pulse-shaping power supply; spectral emission reduction; Inductors; Power supplies; Radar; Radio transmitters; Resistance; Switches; Trajectory; Pulsed power supplies; pulse shaping methods; radar transmitters;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Power Electronics and Motion Control Conference (EPE/PEMC), 2012 15th International

Conference_Location

Novi Sad

Print_ISBN

978-1-4673-1970-6

Electronic_ISBN

978-1-4673-1971-3

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/EPEPEMC.2012.6397484

Filename

6397484