Thermal design of a solid-state power amplifier at Q-band

Abstract It is very difficult to cool a new solid-state power amplifier at Q-band, which is composed of some high-power monolithic millimeter-wave integrated circuit chips. Cu/Diamond carriers are used as the heat sinks of the chips, and two layers of heat pipes are sealed in the chassis to reduce the thermal resistance of the amplifier. The thermal design scheme is proved useful by simulating Flotherm and the temperature data from the infrared imager. The study provides an available way for the thermal design of a solid-state power amplifier.