Performance enhancement of pulsed solid state power amplifier using Drain Modulation over Gate Modulation

The study was conducted to compare the RF parameters of pulsed solid state power amplifier using drain modulation and gate modulation and thereby to analyze the impact of modulations on the pulsed performance. To establish this, the C-band pulsed SSPA is designed, fabricated and tested at 5.35 GHz frequency with 225 MHz bandwidth using two different methods of modulation techniques, implemented on electronic power conditioner. The performance of two modulation techniques is compared for different RF parameters. The test results of drain and gate modulated pulsed solid state power amplifier are discussed at length for identical dc operating conditions and based upon the measured performances, conclusion are derived. This pulsed microwave solid state power amplifier can be used by pulsed RADAR community for the development of space borne RADAR like synthetic aperture radar, altimeter etc. for microwave remote sensing applications.