Joint Tactical Radio System (JTRS) Cluster 5 Power Amplifier

The solicitation details the need for a wideband, efficient, compact, thermally robust power amplifier (PA). The PA operates over the frequency range from 2-2800 MHz with a gain of 31 dB, output power of 38 dBm and 60 dB of power control. Hittite, a fabless semiconductor company, has over 20 years of experience providing state-of-the-art MMICs to both military and commercial applications with over 90 MMIC amplifiers offered in its catalog. Herein Hittite proposes both innovative technology and circuit techniques to address this amplifier specification. Possible device technologies include; LDMOS, field plate devices in PHEMT, MESFET, SiC and GaN, and high voltage HBT. A detailed analysis of important device characteristics and their impact on PA performance are reviewed. By far the most important parameter is operating voltage as this reduces matching network transformation requirements thus enabling multi decade PA design. A series combing circuit technique is also presented that enables the use of low voltage processes for high voltage amplifiers. The output stage of the PA drives the performance and two approaches for that stage are described and simulated including both a distributed and lossy match approach. During the Phase II program the PA MMIC/module will be implemented.