Designing and Packaging Wide Band PAs: Wideband PA and Packaging, History, and Recent Advances: Part 1
In current applications such as communication, aerospace and defense, electronic warfare (EW) electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) and sensing, among others, there is an ever growing demand for more linear power with increasingly greater bandwidth and efficiency. Critical for these applications are the design and packaging of wide band, high power amplifiers that are both compact in size and low in cost [1] Most such applications, including EW, radar, and EMC testers, require high 1 dB compression point (P1dB) power with good linearity across a wide band (multi octave to decade bandwidth) [2] In addition to linear power, wide bandwidth is essential for high data rate communication and high resolution in radar and active imagers [3] In modern electronics equipment such as automated vehicles, rapidly increasing complexity imposes strict EMC regulations for human safety and security [4] This often requires challenging specifications for the power amplifier (PA) such as very high P1dB power [to kilowatt, continuous wave (CW) across approximately a decade bandwidth with high linearity, reliability, and long life, even for 100% load mismatch [5]
IEEE Microwave Magazine