Solid-State Amplifier/Transmitter replacements for Travelling Wave Tube (TWT) Technology

In the Phase I effort, DTI successfully designed and demonstrated a unique, integrated, L-band, 8 kW, solid-state power amplifier with GaN transistors. This advanced concept radically simplifies solid-state transmitters, delivers long term reliability, graceful degradation, and, by combining multiple units, can be easily scaled to very high power levels (200 kW) including the COBRA DANE transmitter. This solid state amplifier consisted of three power modules in an assembly that can accept up to 16 modules, with both power and bandwidth increasing proportionally to the number of modules.The amplifier achieved an efficiency of 67%, approximately double the efficiency of present day VEDs used for high power RF amplifiers, and a 90 MHz bandwidth. Since both power and bandwidth scale with the number of modules, a fully populated assembly can produce power in excess of 40 kW with a bandwidth up to 200 MHz optimized for the COBRA DANE radar.This high efficiency solid state amplifier, with its high efficiency, long-lived components, graceful degradation, scalability, absence of high voltage and cumbersome support circuitry has the potential to dramatically decrease the operating cost and increase the up-time of radar systems.