Efficient and Linear Amplification of Spectrally Confined Pulsed AM Radar Signals

This letter presents a pulsed high-efficiency power amplifier with increased spectral purity obtained by supply modulation of the pulse envelope. The PA operates at 2.14 GHz with 78% efficiency at 6 W peak power, and with 66.4% average efficiency over a 14.7
$\mu{\rm s}$
pulse with a 4.1 dB PAR shaped by a 90% efficient resonant-pulse envelope supply modulator. For PARs greater than 4.1 dB, the signal envelope can be split between the supply modulator and the PA drive, with up to 25% improvement in composite efficiency.