The advent of Gallium Nitrate (GaN) based, scaled-down and miniature models of transistors assisted the development of energy-efficient, environment friendly, less voluminous, and light-weight GaN transistor-based solid-state power amplifier (SSPA) – referred to as SSPA amplifier GaN – with excellent linearity and output power.
SSPA amplifier GaN is the most practical alternative to the traveling wave tube amplifier (TWTA) base amplifier in use earlier. The bulk of the amplification job is carried out by these transistors.
SSPAs are used in various high-power radio-frequency and other applications like transmitters and low noise receiver amplifiers.
GaN-based SSPA is a complete module by itself which can have 75dB high gain. It also can have a communication bus, gain adjustment facility, and a microcontroller.
Being configured in a modular architecture it is pre-disposed to offer ease of repair and replacement. Modular based systems ease the maintenance load and thereby the time required for this activity.
Therefore the SSPA amplifier GaN has a soft fail capability that does not exist in TWTA based power amplifiers.
These amplifiers can have an alpha-numeric control dashboard that displays the performance parameters of the amplifier. Performance data can also be accessed from a remote location using the in-built tele-interface.
The auto-shutdown feature in these SSPAs protects the system from the heat-related damage prevalent in amplifiers.
State-of-the-art versatile SSPA amplifier GaN devices/models are manufactured by Raditek Inc and can handle millimeter frequency bands to 90 GHz and ultra-high power output-from watts to kilowatts. See the Raditek Inc website.