The benefits of Wolfspeed GaN-on-SiC RF amplifiers have been well-documented—they provide outstanding power density, reliability and better efficiency than their traditional GaAs-based counterparts. In this paper, a GaN-on-SiC-based RF amplifier is optimized for 4.4–5.0 GHz troposcatter applications.
This paper reviews component selection, design in a simulated environment, and implementation of the simulated circuit into hardware. The primary development goal was to produce a compact power amplifier design to be implemented into an RF front-end designed by Richardson RFPD. Figure 1, below, uses a C-Band SATCOM PA as an example, outlined in a yellow box. This troposcatter PA is capable of delivering 50 W CW from 4.4 to 5 GHz and has a linearity requirement for less than 3% EVM under a peak-to-average power ratio of 10 dB.
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