• Journal of the Korea Institute of Information and Communication Engineering
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• v.3 no.3
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• pp.517-531
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• 1999

This paper presents the development of the 2-mode variable gain high power amplifier for a transmitter of INMARSAT-M operating at L-band(1626.5-1646.5 MHz). This SSPA(Solid State Power Amplifier) is amplified 42 dBm in high power mode and 36 dBm in low power mode for INMARSAT-M. The allowable error sets +1 dBm of an upper limit and -2 dBm of a lower limit, respectively. To simplify the fabrication process, the whole system is designed by two parts composed of a driving amplifier and a high power amplifier, The HP's MGA-64135 and Motorola's MRF-6401 are used for driving amplifier, and the ERICSSON's PTE-10114 and PTF-10021 are used the high power amplifier. The SSPA was fabricated by the circuits of RF, temperature compensation and 2-mode gain control circuit in aluminum housing. The gain control method was proposed by controlling the voltage for the 2-mode. In addition, It has been experimentally verified that the gain is controlled for single tone signal as well as two tone signals. The realized SSPA has 42 dB and 36 dB for small signal gain within 20 MHz bandwidth, and the VSWR of input and output port is less than 1.5:1 The minimum value of the 1 dB compression point gets 5 dBm for 2-mode variable gain high power amplifier. A typical two tone intermodulation point has 32.5 dBc maximum which is single carrier backed off 3 dB from 1 dB compression point. The maximum output power of 43 dBm was achieved at the 1636.5 MHz. These results reveal a high power of 20 Watt, which was the design target.the design target.