For fans of solid-state power, API Technologies Corp. is unveiling a new line of gallium-nitride (GaN) power amplifiers at Booth No. 1515 at the 2014 IMS. With frequency coverage to 18 GHz and power levels to 1 kW, these pulsed amplifiers offer the power levels of traveling-wave-tube amplifiers (TWTAs) at a fraction of the size and weight. They are ideal for commercial and military applications, including radar, communication transmitters, and jamming systems. The amplifiers are supplied in hermetic housings and available with a variety of options, include sleep mode, blanking, forward/reverse power detection, discrete power supply designs for wide DC input voltage ranges, as well as microprocessor-based control features for bias optimization, temperature compensation, and fault monitoring.
According to Dennis Barrick, technical marketing manager for RF/Microwave & Microelectronics (RF2M-US) at API Technologies, “API’s feature-rich architecture combined with complementary design tools provide engineers a suite of customizable solutions to meet challenging requirements in performance, packaging, and lead times.” Typical specifications include 1 kW peak output power from 9.2 to 9.8 GHz with a 100-μs pulse at 10% duty cycle and for 20% efficiency.