A SOLID-STATE C-BAND POWER AMPLIFIER FOR COMMUNICATIONS SATELLITES
International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 24-27, 1983 / Sheraton-Harbor Island Hotel and Convention Center, San Diego, California === A solid-state power amplifier now routinely replaces the traveling-wave tube amplifier in C-band communications satellites. The immediate benefit o...
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| Language: | en_US |
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International Foundation for Telemetering
1983
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/10150/612840 http://arizona.openrepository.com/arizona/handle/10150/612840 |
| Summary: | International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 24-27, 1983 / Sheraton-Harbor Island Hotel and Convention Center, San Diego, California === A solid-state power amplifier now routinely replaces the traveling-wave tube amplifier in
C-band communications satellites. The immediate benefit of superior performance is
realized by increased transponder capacity. Long-term benefits of higher reliability and
reduced production costs are also projected.
This paper describes salient features of the first solid-state power amplifier to fully replace
the traveling-wave tube amplifier in spaceborne transponders. The 8.5-watt, 60-dB gain
amplifier employs a chain of gallium-arsenide field-effect transistors to provide a
160-MHz usable bandwidth within the 3.7- to 4.2-GHz downlink band. Data typical for
this amplifier are presented. The key parameters of efficiency, intermodulation distortion,
and phase effects are described in detail.
The amplifier is being manufactured for numerous communications satellite programs.
Aspects of reproducibility and automated testing at the various stages of amplifier
production are addressed. Forty-eight amplifiers are now operational at geosynchronous
altitude with several times that number scheduled for launch within the next few years. |
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