A Ka-Band, Mixed Microstrip/Waveguide Power Amplifier Module Design Based on A Ternary Combination of Power Elements

A power amplifier module design is presented here, which sums the power from nine Ka-band MMIC power amplifiers by ternary combining using mixed microstrip/waveguide media as a means to reduce losses. A saturated output power of 33.5 dBm was achieved using medium power amplifier chips (26 dBm) in order to test this approach in our development of high power modules.