Design of X‐band power amplifier for leo satellite transmitter

Abstract

The design of a three‐stage X‐band power amplifier (PA) is presented in this article. The amplifier is realized using an ATF‐38143 low noise PHEMT FET. The proposed PA achieves 17–18.3 dB power gain, a good input matching (S11 < −8 dB) and a good output matching (S22 < −10 dB). The average power added efficiency when the input power 5 dBm is 50% over the 4‐GHz bandwidth (from 8 to 12 GHz). The total power consumption of the PA is 0.24 W from 2.5 V supply voltage. Its performance was simulated using Agilent EEs of ADS simulator. The PA is fabricated with photolithographic technique and scattering parameters are measured using Agilent Vector Network Analyzer ES1978. Measurements and simulations show good agreement. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 57:860–865, 2015