Design and characterization of 50 kW solid-state RF amplifier

Abstract

Radio frequency (RF) and microwave amplifier research has been largely focused on solid-state technology in recent years. This paper presents design and performance characterization of a 50-kW modular solid-state amplifier, operating at 505.8 MHz. It includes architecture selection and design procedures based on circuit and EM simulations for its building blocks like solid-state amplifier modules, combiners, dividers, and directional couplers. Key performance objectives such as efficiency, return loss, and amplitude/phase imbalance are discussed for this amplifier for real-time operation. This amplifier is serving as the state-of-the-art RF source in Indus-2 synchrotron radiation source. Characterization on component level as well as system level of this amplifier serves useful data for RF designers working in communication and particle accelerator fields.