GaN SSPA for UHF space applications

Abstract

UHF Solid State Power Amplifiers (SSPAs) for use in government and commercial communications satellites have been developed. These SSPAs combine high-voltage gallium nitride (GaN) FET technology with predistortion linearization (PDL) to allow the achievement of both linearity and record high efficiency. A peak power of more than 170 W with a power added efficiency (PAE) of 90% has been achieved. The SSPAs can be operated at lower power for multi-carrier WCDMA operation. A PAE of > 80% was achieved with a WCDMA adjacent channel level ratio (ACLR) of -25 dB.