Development of a C-Band Multi-Stage Solid State Power Amplifier for 200 W Continuous Wave Output

A. Lewandowski (Zakład Doskonalenia Zawodowego, Poland), J. Sorocki (AGH Univ. of Science and Techn. in Krakow, Poland)

In this paper, the development of a microwave solid-state power amplifier is presented. A multi-stage discrete amplifier operating within the 4.4 GHz to 5 GHz band featuring a GaN HEMT transistor output stage is designed and tested to deliver 100 W continuous-wave output to be implemented in a dual-channel configuration with power combining at the output. The amplifier design is done from output power backward the signal path to satisfy both the minimal output and maximal input powers. Class A operation is used to satisfy the high linearity requirement of constellation-dense modulation schemes. The power and driver stages are fabricated while the measurement results are compared against simulations to validate the modeling approach.