High PAE 100W W-Band GaN SSPA for Planetary Sensing

QuinStar Technology proposes to develop a compact, high-efficiency, lightweight, high-power (>100W) GaN Solid State Power Amplifier (SSPA) with High-PAE 4W PA MMICs operating at 92.5~95.5GHz for space and airborne applications such as remote sensing radar and planetary science missions. QuinStar plans to meet the goals of this program by employing an optimal combination of advanced solid-state Microwave Monolithic Integrated Circuits (MMIC) GaN-on-SiC device technology, unique power-combining techniques, and innovative packaging technologies with a special emphasis on SWaP-C, rad-hard, thermal, and mechanical robustness. We propose to use/design 4 W GaN MMICs to build up the power-combining scheme. Based on this assumption, we will use a two-tier power combing design, 1x16 MMIC drives 2x or 4x 16-way radial combined MMICs to reach 100W and 200W, respectively. We proposed to use class-EF 2nd and 3rd harmonic control through quarter wave microstrip series and shunt stub for high efficiency. The MMIC uses 12V drain voltage to alleviate the junction temperature with a modular distributed PA puck. Each puck seats directly on a heat sink to keep its temperature cool, resulting in a high-efficiency, scalable, and compact SSPA flight unit.