Effects of modulator misalignment on LINC transmission with traveling wave tube amplifiers

Limitations on out of band emissions impose a certain degree of linearity on amplifier operation and often forces operation significantly below saturation, the region where the amplifier is most efficient. We present a study of the sensitivity of the LInear amplification with Nonlinear Components (LINC) method using traveling wave tube amplifiers. The LINC approach decomposes the source signal into two constant envelope signals, which are passed through a pair of amplifiers and then recombined to provide an amplified version of the source signal. Since the input to each amplifier has constant envelope, the amplifiers may be operated near saturation in order to obtain high efficiency and yet the overall system remains linear.