Design of an ultra-high efficiency GaN high-power amplifier for SAR remote sensing

Thrivikraman, Tushar; Hoffman, James P.

doi:10.1109/aero.2013.6497405

Cited by 2 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 6 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Given this high peak power, an extremely efficient compact TRM is required to allow this mission to be feasible. Gallium Nitride (GaN) High Electron mobility transistors (HEMTs) technology has been shown to provide high-power and high-efficiency making it the perfect candidate for this next generation radar system [5].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A compact two-stage 120WGaN high power amplifier for SweepSAR radar systems

Thrivikraman

Horst

Price

et al. 2014

2014 IEEE Aerospace Conference

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This work presents the design and measured results of a fully integrated switched power two-stage GaN HEMT highpower amplifier (HPA) achieving 60% power-added efficiency at over 120 W output power. This high-efficiency GaN HEMT HPA is an enabling technology for L-band SweepSAR interferometric instruments that enable frequent repeat intervals and highresolution imagery. The L-band HPA was designed using spacequalified state-of-the-art GaN HEMT technology. The amplifier exhibits over 34 dB of power gain at 51 dBm of output power across an 80 MHz bandwidth. The HPA is divided into two stages, an 8 W driver stage and 120 W output stage. The amplifier is designed for pulsed operation, with a high-speed DC drain switch operating at the pulsed-repetition interval and settles within 200 ns. In addition to the electrical design, a thermally optimized package was designed, that allows for direct thermal radiation to maintain low-junction temperatures for the GaN parts maximizing long-term reliability. Lastly, real radar waveforms are characterized and analysis of amplitude and phase stability over temperature demonstrate ultra-stable operation over temperature using integrated bias compensation circuitry allowing less than 0.2 dB amplitude variation and 2 • phase variation over a 70 • C range.

show abstract

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%