SCALABLE SOLID STATE POWER AMPLIFIERS [ Liquid Cooled, CW & Pulse ]

Scalable power combining with hot swapping provides an affordable upgrade path for mission critical applications

A unique design architecture from Empower RF Systems is yielding unprecedented performance and scalability for liquid cooled SSPA’s delivering hundreds of kilowatts of pulse and CW power. This breakthrough design is being fielded using both LDMOS and GaN on SiC devices for user applications that include EW, Radar, Directed Energy, Satcom, EMC and RF Product Testing.

THE MOST FLEXIBLE AMPLIFIER SYSTEM AVAILABLE

Each amplifier “building block” includes an integrated power supply in its 2U chassis. This arrangement improves pulse droop performance while eliminating the risk of a single power supply failure taking the entire amplifier offline.

Narrow and broadband configurations are available for CW or Pulsed. The architecture is the same regardless of frequency – RF configurations driven by output power requirements. Each amplifier drawer is fully “hot swappable” with proven dripless technology.

You can increase output power to an existing amplifier by adding 2U amplifier building blocks (in even numbers) or adding additional complete racks.

Empower’s Next Generation liquid cooled amplifier is designed to stay ahead of the increasing complexities of the signal environment. The combination of embedded firmware, software, and real time processing/control allows for maximum flexibility and operation in any application. This single architecture is capable of user selectable multimode operation and can by dynamically configured. CW Amplifiers offer the same pulse performance as our pulsed amplifiers with no limit on duty cycle and the Pulsed amplifiers allow CW operation 7dB below rated peak power.

USER SELECTABLE

OUTPUT POWER MANAGEMENT

• Automatic Gain Control (AGC) with Peak Power Detection
• AGC with RMS Power Detection
• Automatic Level Control (ALC) with Peak Power Detection
• ALC with RMS Power Detection
• Manual Gain Control (MGC)

INPUT SIGNAL MODULATION

• FM, AM, Pulsed, CW
• CDMA, FSK, QPSK, OFDM
• Multi-tone
• Frequency Hopping

INPUT AND OUTPUT DETECTORS

• Peak
• RMS

FEATURES of Liquid Cooled Systems

• Liquid Cooled Scalable Power Architecture in CW or Pulse Configurations
• No Single Point of RF active device Failure
• Distributed Power Supplies
• Full Frontal “on air” Hot Swapping
• Only Fractional System Spares Needed for Complete Back up System

  Only Spare a Couple of 2U Amplifier Drawers and One Controller

  The Controller is Common Across the Portfolio

• System will Remain Operational and “On the Air” with Graceful Power Degradation

In the Event of an RF Component Failure or High VSWR Condition

Loss of an Amplifier Drawer is Only a Fractional Reduction of Output Power

• Asymmetrical and Random Pulse Width and Duty Cycle Operation
• Short and Long Pulse Capabilities - 200ns up to 500usec

500KHz PRF’s and 20% Duty Cycles

• Full Digital Peak and RMS Detection for Accurate Metering
• No External Cabling, Full Back Plane Implementation Ensures

Electromagnetic Compatibility

• Ethernet Rapid Spanning Tree Architecture for Network Redundancy
• Performance Monitoring and Systems Reporting – Current, Voltage, Temperature down to the Pallet and Device Level
• Continuous BIT, Down to the Device Level
• Each 2U Amplifier “Building Block” is Digitally Set for Phase and Gain

SCALABLE UPGRADE PATHS
PLANNING FOR AN UNCERTAIN FUTUREE

Empower’s scalable solutions offer an affordable upgrade path for future power needs by adding hardware to an existing system.

Our solutions provides three levels of scalability which can be exercised independently or in any combination:

• Increased number of 2U amplifier drawers per rack

For racks not fully populated, 2U amplifier drawers can be added in pairs

A partial system contains an even number of 2U amplifier drawers (A full rack contains 16)

• Increase number of racks

Full racks can be combined with additional 1, 2,3, or 5 racks

For racks not fully populated, “like populated” racks can be combined

• Increase the amplifier’s duty cycle for pulsed systems - consult factory