High-Efficiency Solid-State Radar PAs

Inefficiencies in radar transmitters lead to large prime power and cooling requirements for radars. The resulting prime power and cooling needs have a significant impact on radar weight, deckhouse volume, and cost and in turn can drive platform design. These problems are exacerbated for Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD) applications requiring long pulse lengths. Power amplifier (PA) inefficiencies are the driving factor for transmitter inefficiencies and improvements in PA efficiency will provide significant radar and platform benefits.

Gallium Nitride (GaN) on Silicon Carbide (SiC) PA technology has the capability to significantly reduce prime power and cooling needs of radar systems by improving transmit/receive (T/R) module efficiency. Unfortunately, the cost of a GaN-on-SiC monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC) is significantly higher than a baseline Gallium Arsenide (GaAs) MMIC. Auriga’s innovative PA solution takes advantage of the benefits of GaN technology while minimizing the required MMIC area, which is a major factor in production cost of T/R modules. A PAE increase of 10 to 20 percent is expected across a 1 GHz bandwidth.

Optimization Priorities:

• Cost
• Efficiency
• Size

Balanced Solution:

Design and deliver a drop-in, low-cost replacement solution for phased-array radar. These systems, containing thousands of elements, could realize significant cost savings using Auriga’s PA. Providing broadband operation makes it suitable for a wide range of S-band platforms.