MACOM UPDATES

The proliferation of new low earth orbit (LEO) satellite constellations carrying high-speed data traffic creates a pressing need for RF and microwave solutions with better power efficiency, wider bandwidths and higher operating frequencies.

Travelling Wave Tubes (TWTs) and TWTAs devices remain a solution of choice for high gain, high reliability satellite communications. Of particular value are Versatile Linearizers (VLs) for use with satellite TWTAs. MACOM has developed Ka- and Ku-Band versions applicable to LEO deployments, with more than 150 VLs produced thus far. New smaller and more efficient miniature TWTAs (also known as Microwave Power Modules or MPMs) when combined with a VL, offer an optimal solution for many applications where small size, minimal DC power and wideband operation are required. In these cases, linearization can provide about 2 dB more output power and a 40% increase in efficiency. VLs enable high efficiency and linearity at multiple operating points, important for phased array operation.

LTWTAs provide the best way to minimize DC power, and new highly efficient MPMs can provide the most compact PAs essential for new space applications.

Recent developments in VL enable TWTAs to provide optimal efficiency over a wide range of power levels (>6 dB dynamic range), frequency ranges (>100 GHz) and bandwidth (>3 GHz). These solutions are ideal for phased array and shaped, multibeam applications. Linearity is a prerequisite for PAs used in space, where the highest PA efficiency is a must. Also needed are PAs that operate efficiently at different power levels, and which can be changed over time.

For wide bandwidths (>1 GHz), analog predistortion linearization (APDL) is the best solution because of its small size, low complexity, and superior wide bandwidth performance. Advances in knowhow have pushed LTWTAs to V-, E- and W-Bands and offer multi-octave bandwidths >10 GHz. New VLs correct for variations in a TWT’s nonlinear characteristics when it is adjusted to different saturation power levels (to maintain optimum efficiency a multiple power levels). At the linearities required for space PAs, these VL-TWTAs offer greater power flexibility than solid-state Doherty PAs.

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