A long pulse IMPATT amplifier for KU-band

Abstract

WHEN ACTIVE RADARS arc used as seekers in guided missiles, they typically require peak transmitter output power in kilowatts to achieve ranges of several kilometers. When solidstate implementation is also required, one approach is to transmit long, medium power pulses and to use pulse compression in the radar receiver to achieve high effective peak power. A recent application of this nature resulted in al7-GHz IMPATT power amplifier which will be described in this paper. The design called for an unconditionally-stable, pulsed amplifier providing 20-dB gain at an output level of 1 0 W. Pulsewidths of 1 0 ps, a 10% duty cycle, and a 500-MHz bandwidth were also required.