1.5 kW solid-state pulsed microwave power amplifier for S-band radar application

Abstract

This paper describes the design and performance of a 1.5 kW solid-state pulsed power amplifier, operating over 2.7-2.9 GHz at a duty of 10 percent and with a pulse width of 100 us for radar application. The solid-state pulsed power amplifier configures a series of 8-stage cascaded power amplifiers with different RF output power levels. Low loss Wilkinson combiners are used to combine output powers of six 300 W high power solid state modules. Tests show peak output power of 1.61 kW, corresponding to PAE of 26.2 % over 2.7-2.9 GHz with a pulse width of 100 us and a PRF of 1 kHz.