Satellite TWT-amplifiers using the microwave power module concept and radiation cooled collectors

Microwave Power Modules (MPM's) try to make the best use of the high power and high efficiency capability of Travelling Wave Tubes (TWT's) and of the low weight, high gain and excellent signal processing characteristics of the solid state MIC or MMIC Linearizer Front End (LFE) technology. The use of LFE's with satellite TWT's allows one to reduce the tube length and mass by about 30%, resulting in a short or STWT of only 30 dB gain. The mass of the new Ku-band LFE is only 35 g. It has 1.3 W dc power consumption, 20 dBm output power and about 20 dB gain. Compared to standard TWT's, the third order intermodulation distance of the LFE/STWT was improved by about 10 dB in backoff and 2 dB in saturation. The LFE is built in hybrid MIC and MMIC technology. The STWT had 62% efficiency over a 1.8 GHz bandwidth in Ku-band. An extremely light weight Be-Cone radiation cooled collector for TWT's on Direct Broadcasting Satellites (DBS) was developed for further cost savings.<
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