Comparison of Single-Tone and Spectrally-Confined Waveform Performance in Millimeter-Wave Amplifiers

Many waveforms for future military satellite communication systems rely on spectrally-confined waveforms to increase the number of users and maintain capacity. These waveforms stress the performance of the transmitting amplifiers. The design and planning stages of communication systems often use memory-less nonlinear models, such as amplitude-to-amplitude modulation and amplitude-to-phase modulation models. These models are based on single-tone measurements and do not accurately predict the amplifier performance for wider bandwidth modulations. This paper presents measured comparisons of single-tone characteristics and spectrally-confined waveform performance in solid-state amplifiers at millimeter-wave frequencies. Measurements are performed over a range of data rates with PSK and QAM modulations, with comparison of devices with and without nonlinear memory.