Pulse Operation Characteristics of X-Band High Power GaN Amplifiers for the Hayabusa 2 Re-Entry Capsule Tracking Radar

This paper describes the pulse operation characteristics of GaN radar amplifiers for space and civil use. A single-ended GaN amplifier was fabricated using a single die and a printed circuit board and operated with maximum output power of 70.8 W, gain of 8.5 dB, and DC-RF efficiency of 38.5% at 9.5 GHz. The amplifier operated under a pulse width of 10 μs and duty ratio of 10%. A parallel-combined amplifier generated 125.9 W output and 31.5% efficiency under the same conditions as a single-ended amplifier. The developed GaN amplifiers are applicable to the tracking radar for the Hayabusa 2 re-entry capsule and search radars for the marine use.