C-Band 500W Pulsed Power Amplifier for Doppler Weather Radar Application

This paper describes the design and development of a 500 W solid state pulsed power amplifier (SSPPA) module based on Gallium Nitride (GaN) technology. Pulsed power amplifiers are the main building blocks for all pulsed RADAR systems. This paper mainly focuses on the complete design of the RF transmitter with DC sequence card. A high-power combiner is used to combine two 350 W pulsed power amplifier to achieve the output power of more than 500 W. This amplifier works in the C-band, generating a peak pulsed power of 500 W up to a duty cycle of 10% with maximum pulse width of 100µs. This amplifier can be used as a basic building block to realize higher power amplifiers, which can replace microwave tubes. Roger 6035 HTC with design dielectric constant of 3.6 with 20mils thickness is used to implement full module.