Ka-band Power Combiner Amplifier Technology Research

In this paper, a Ka-band power combination amplification technique is analyzed, including the design, fabrication and measurement of the circuit.. The limited output power of solid power devices is the bottleneck of millimeter wave systems, which can be overcomed by an effective method: the power combination technique. Designing a low loss power distribution/combination network is the key point of the project. This paper has analysed the power splitter network mostly used in mm-wave frequency band in detail, on the general analytic basis of the development of domestic and overseas mm-wave solid power combination and amplification technology.On the basis of the First, the development of the solid power combination technique is presented, and the power distribution network, which is widely used in millimeter-wave bands, is well analyzed. Three structures, including a waveguide-microstrip double probe transition, an improved Wilkinson hybrid and a 3dB coupler, are simulated, optimized, fabricated and measured respectively. In which, the waveguide-microstrip double probe transition presents a satisfactory transmission loss of 0.5～1.5dB during 34~36GHz frequency band. Available corresponding amplifying chips are also introduced and analyzed. Finally, the waveguide-microstrip double probe transition is used as the combination network, while HMC28 and TGA1141-EPU are used as amplifying units, for the actual Ka-band power combination amplifier. The measured minimum saturation output power is 31.3dBm and the maximum saturation output power is 32.3dBm in the 34~36GHz working band, and the average combination efficiency is 64%.With the analysis on the results, suggestions for further research are given.