V-Band Solid-State Power Amplifiers for SATCOM Downlinks

In response to the AF182-111 SBIR solicitation (“V-Band Solid-State Power Amplifiers for SATCOM Downlinks�), MaXentric proposes AEROSTAR (“Amplifier for Efficient, Reliable, V-Band Operation in Space, Temperature-Variant, And high Radiation environments�) to provide linear and high efficiency V-band solid state power amplifier for satellite communications. AEROSTAR operates from 71-76 GHz with greater than 40W of output power and better than 30% PAE and greater than 20 dB gain. AEROSTAR’s unique and novel combining scheme rivals the low insertion loss of a well designed radial combiner but offers a more compact form factor with low SWaP-C. AEROSTAR utilizes state of the art GaN power amplifiers for their high power density and output power performance. Coupled with an efficiency enhancement architecture, AEROSTAR offers high efficiency performance for both CW and modulated signals such as 16QAM. In Phase I, analysis and design of AEROSTAR, including thermal and mechanical integration analysis of the SSPA and the novel combiner, will be performed through simulations, along with relevant architecture/system trade studies. During Phase II, MaXentric will design, fabricate, implement, and test the complete AEROSTAR prototype to demonstrate full power (> 40W) operation at high efficiency (>30% PAE) with both CW signals and modulated signals.