Study On Test Method And Automation Of Microwave Power Amplifier For Satellite Payloads

Recent years,China’s aerospace industry has been rapidly developed,and made a series of remarkable achievements.Especially the localized microwave power amplifiers(PA),which complete the power amplification,gain control and phase control of microwave signal,have made rapid progress and are widely used in series of satellites.The localized space microwave power amplifiers have been applied only for recent years,testing technology still needs time to be improved.Some conventional test items could follow test methods of the ground amplifier,but for some other items,the test methods are rarely described,no matter in foreign R & D company’s documents nor in China’s public papers/talents,so that testing methods need further studies and automated test should be implemented in order to improve the efficiency.Aimed on the problems described above,this paper studies the key items of microwave power amplifier: hot standing wave ratio and AM-PM transfer coefficient.On the basis of completing the test method research,the research of the automated test is carried on.For the research of hot SWR and AM-PM transfer coefficient,this paper is based on testing principles,firstly the domestic and abroad research actualities are investigated,then test principles are analyzed,the specific test plans are proposed,the test systems are built,followed by the verification work,finally the test results are analyzed.The article also describes the research on automated test,analyzing the functional requirements,performance requirements,interface requirements and so on.According to various requirements of product test and the type of DUT,the specific functional test module has been designed.The design of module covers the management of test resources,which can check the current system’s information and manage test instruments.The test program has maintenance functions,the test sequence can browse the current system and save the current configuration information,we can directly recall the configuration information and then edit it.In addition,there are calibration module,the test task execution module,the data analysis and processing module in software.For the design of the test platform,the article also describes the set-up and process of some test items in automatic test system.The research of this subject provides reliable theoretic and experimental supports for key test items of the future microwave power amplifiers of satellites,also,provides a doable automation test solution.