Ku-band solid state power amplifier for Geosat follow-on
- Resource Type
- Conference
- Authors
- Abernathy, P.C.; Dobrzanski, J.R.; Smith, M.C.; Griswold, M.S.; Burnsed, M.G.; Sherman, J.R.
- Source
- Proceedings of SOUTHEASTCON '96 Southeastcon '96 Southeastcon '96. Bringing Together Education, Science and Technology., Proceedings of the IEEE. :277-280 1996
- Subject
- Communication, Networking and Broadcast Technologies
Components, Circuits, Devices and Systems
Computing and Processing
Engineered Materials, Dielectrics and Plasmas
Fields, Waves and Electromagnetics
Geoscience
Photonics and Electrooptics
Power, Energy and Industry Applications
Solid state circuits
Power amplifiers
Phase measurement
Radar
MESFETs
Protection
Load management
Voltage
Automatic control
Automatic logic units
- Language
A compact 7 W (peak) Ku-band solid state power amplifier (SSPA) has been designed and developed for the Navy's Geosat follow-on (GFO) radar altimeter. This amplifier combines the output of two 5 W internally matched MESFETs with an integral waveguide combiner, and uses an external isofilter to protect the SSPA from load variations and to suppress 2nd and 3rd harmonics to -60 dBc. Drain voltage switching was implemented using a novel modulator design. An automatic levelling control (ALC) circuit maintains constant output power at end of life (EOL) over varying input and environmental conditions. AM/PM conversion was measured at 4.4 degrees peak/dB and the phase linearity was measured at 12.0 degrees p-p. A discussion is included on various growth options and new devices applicable for the future in remote sensing applications such as SeaWinds II, NPOESS, and GFO2.