Description
The objective of this activity is to develop, manufacture and test a highly efficient Q-band spatial power divider and combiner forapplication in Q-band Solid State Power Amplifiers (SSPA). Experimental performance verification shall be carried out on a 40 - 60 W (nominal operating point) Q-band SSPA breadboard. Targeted Improvements: Improved power added efficiency of 5 - 10% of Q-band SSPAs in comparison to the state of the art. Description: The efficiency of Q-band Solid State Power Amplifiers (SSPA) is limited by theinherent efficiency of the semiconductor technologies as well as by the losses of the combiner networks. An efficiency improvement in the order of 5 to 10% could be achieved by the use of low loss combining networks such as spatial power combiners. This activity will investigate scalable and high efficiency power combining techniques for use in Q-band SSPAs. The thermal management solution shall result in transistor junction temperatures in line with space derating rules when the Microwave Monolithic Integrated Circuit (MMIC) is operated at saturation. A 40 - 60 W (nominal operating point) Q-band spatially-power-combined SSPA breadboard will be designed, manufactured and tested. Commercial off the shelf (COTS) MMICs may be used. Experimental testing will include characterisation of the spatial combiner and verification of the efficiency improvement at SSPA level.