Class AB amplifiers power many broadband military applications, including radios, jammers, and radar systems. They provide a practical blend of efficiency and linearity to boost signals without quickly draining a power supply. To meet emerging requirements for such amplifiers, Pasternack has unleashed a line of 18 broadband Class AB amplifiers with as much as 200 W output power from 20 MHz to 18 GHz based on different semiconductor technologies, such as GaN and Si LDMOS devices. The 50-Ω amplifiers deliver as much as 53-dB power gain across portions of that total bandwidth and are unconditionally stable. They use SMA or Type N coaxial connectors for RF/microwave signals and integrated D-sub connectors for DC bias and control. The amplifiers are housed in compact modules and include TTL control, current sense, and temperature sense functions.
In addition to broadband operation, the amplifiers are equipped for wide temperature ranges, with a rating of −20 to +60°C. They can also operate in environments with relative humidity (RH) as high as 95%. In support of high reliability, the firm offers a pair of heatsink modules with dc-controlled cooling fans developed for these amplifiers. Tim Galla, product line manager at Pasternack, explained: “The addition of these new high power amplifiers offers our customers more choices to address applications requiring a small-form-factor, high-power RF amplifier that utilizes leading edge semiconductor technology, with the benefit of high linearity and efficiency, and wide dynamic range over a broad frequency range.”