A 16-element subarray for hybrid-circuit tile-approach spatial power combining

Three designs for a 4-by-4 subarray are described for use in a spatial power-combined transmitter. The subarrays are constructed using a hybrid-circuit, tile-approach architecture and are composed of 16 cavity-backed, proximity-coupled microstrip antennas, each fed by a 0.5 watt amplifier. Both linearly and circularly polarized subarrays have been constructed for operation over a 10% band centered at 10 GHz. The linearly polarized subarray showed the following peak performance: EIRP greater than 27 dBW, effective transmitter power greater than 5 watts, DC-RF efficiency greater than 20%, and excellent graceful degradation performance.