Broadband spatially combined amplifier array using tapered slot transitions in waveguide

Abstract

Most reported spatially combined or quasioptical amplifier arrays exhibit resonant narrowband performance (<10%) and have not addressed thermal management issues. We report a waveguide-based spatial combining scheme using broadband tapered-slot transitions, capable of realizing full waveguide band coverage (40% fractional bandwidth) with good thermal properties. An X-band prototype using eight mediumpower GaAs monolithic microwave integrated circuits (MMIC's) produced an output power of 2.4 W and 9-dB power gain at 1-dB compression, with a combining efficiency of 68% and <61-dB gain variation over the full waveguide band (8-12 GHz).

A Millimeter-wave Power Combining Amplifier Based on a Waveguide-Microstrip E-Plane Dual-probe Four-way Power Combining Network

“…Taking away a 3 dB of an ideal power combining, the insertion loss of this combiner is about 0.2 dB in Ka-band, which is approximately equal to that of a single waveguide-to-microstrip transition [12]. Moreover, S(2,1) and S (3,1) show an excellent agreement in amplitude and phase at all the frequencies, which is advantageous to obtain a high efficiency when power combining [1].…”

“…Waveguide-based power combiners can offer good heat-sinking property and potential for high efficiency power combining. Recently, various kinds of waveguide-based power combining schemes were developed [3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11]. A waveguide-based power combining amplifier using broadband tapered-slot transitions was presented [3], and subsequently a 120-W solid-state Power Amplifier (PA) module was demonstrated at X-band, using finline array in WR-90 waveguide [4].…”

A new planar compatible power combiner based on radial waveguide

“…So the technology of microwave multiport power combiner has received significant attention in recent years [1]- [3].…”

A new compact Ka-band spatial power combining architecture

“…As drawbacks of 2-D corporate power combining are realized, more passion is devoted to spatial power combining [3]- [6]. To discriminate it from free space power combining, waveguide-based spatial power combining is often adopted to the solid-state inner space combining.…”