Spaceborne C-band Pulsed Solid State Power Amplifier

This paper describes the design and development of a C-band Pulsed SSPA to deliver 12-watt output power with 45 dB gain. Salient features of this design are the use of drain biasing technique for pulsing the devices and non-linear design and realization of the power stages. The Paper describes pulsed SSPA configuration, RF section and Electronic Power Converter Module. The SSPA is fabricated on the three-layer metallized Alumina substrate and integrated with Power Converter Module. The integrated RF test results are shown at the end, which proves excellent performance validation. This SSPA has gone through test and evaluation sequences involving Burn-in, EMI-EMC test, vibration tests and thermovaccum test over temperature extremes from -15°C to 65°C to qualify the amplifier for space usage and test results are well within its specified boundary limits.