Design and Implementation of an X-band Pulsed Solid-state Power Amplifier with High Power and High Efficiency Using Ra- Dial Waveguide Combiner

Abstract—An X-band active radial-waveguide pulsed power amplifier (PA) with high power and high power added efficiency (PAE) is designed, fabricated, and measured in this paper. A bandwidth of 1000 MHz with peak power level of 53.2 dBm at the frequency 9.85GHz, under the condition of 4 kHz pulse repeat frequency (PRF) and 10% of duty cycle, has been obtained by five-way radial waveguide power combiner. Key features of this combined device are its maximum PAE (> 43.6%) and combining efficiency (> 92.8%). From 9.5 to 10.5GHz, the pulsed solid-state power amplifier (PSSPA) can provide a minimum output power level 51.4 dBm, which operates on the repeat frequency 4 kHz, duty cycle 10%. The gain varied between 41.4 and 43.1 dB at the desired frequency range, with only less than ±0.9-dB gain variation, which displayed a flat gain ripple. The PAE of the active combiner fluctuated between 36.5% and 43.6% as frequency varied from 9.5 to 10.5GHz.