Revolutionizing Radar Design With Electronically Reconfigurable GaN Power Amplifiers

This post first appeared in Microwave Product Digest.

This article demonstrates for the first time a robust commercially available high power amplifier based on multi-band transmitter design using a patented reconfigurable PA technique demonstrated by Charles Campbell [2,3,4]. The reconfigurable PA has single-input and single-output reconfigurable matching networks depending on control bit settings for each band of interest. Each bit setting configures all matching networks for band specific optimum performance, enabling the PA to deliver the best system level performance possible in a compact package. This results in an overall reduction in size and weight. This new reconfigurable PA design approach overcomes multiple shortcomings of traditional multi-band transmit front-end designs. The most obvious benefit is the elimination of a band select switch at the PA output. This reduces the output loss by 0.8-1.0 dB, giving it a clear advantage over traditional design approaches. If designed with optimum load impedances and smart switch placement, the reconfigurable PA can closely approximate the performance levels achieved by independently tuned band specific amplifiers.