Numerical and experimental investigation of losses in a tray based spatial power amplifier

This paper presents experimental and numerical investigations on a 49-element Ka-band amplifier array. This study is aimed at determining the origin of various losses in the amplifier array. Passive simulation data confirms that the load seen by the active devices is well matched and that most of the power is coupled to the LSE/sub 10/ mode. This means that coherent power combining should take place if there is no phase and amplitude variation due to the active devices and phase correcting dielectric lenses.