Solid State Kilowatt Amplifiers
A tutorial on how to annoy your neighbors with modern LDMOS transistors
Which bands will we explore here?
• 2m, 222MHz and 70cm
• 6m (winter 2013/14)
• HF through 6m (spring 2014)
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Can You Build One of These?
Sure, why not?
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Another version
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BIG LDMOS devices are available
At “reasonable” cost
– Freescale and NXP (Phillips)
• MRFE6VP1K25H - 1.25kw (Freescale) HF to
~300MHz
• MRFE6VP5600H – 600w (Freescale) HF to 450
MHz
• BLF578XR -1.25KW (NXP) HF to ~300MHz
• BLF184XR – 600w (NXP) HF to 450MHz (new
device, unverified)
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Measured Performance
• 6m, 2m and 222MHz
– 1.25kw part produces 1kw at P1db, and
up to 1.35kw at P3db
– Efficiency is >70% at P1db
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Measured Performance
70cm
• 1.25kw part
produces ~350w
with low
efficiency
– 600w part
produces 500w
at P1db with
53% efficiency
– Two of the 600w
parts produce
1kw at P1db
with 53%
efficiency
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Where to Find Design Info
• Manufacturer reference designs
• Dubus magazine
• QST and QEX magazine
• Web sites
– www.w6pql.com
– F1JRD
– Many others
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Critical Parts
1. LDMOS distributors
• Newark Electronics www.newark.com
(Freescale)
• RFMW Limited http://www.rfmw.com/ (NXP)
• Digikey www.digikey.com
• Mouser www.mouser.com
• Richardson RFPD www.richardsonrfpd.com
(Freescale)
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Critical Parts
High power RF capacitors
– Metal Micas
• Mouser
• Digikey
• Communication Concepts www.communication-
concepts.com/
– SMT micas (CDE MC series)
• Mouser
– Coaxial matching capacitors
• Self-made
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More Critical Parts
Inductors and transformers
• Communication Concepts
• Mouser
• Self-wound RF chokes and transformers
Coax (special stuff, 10, 12, and 25 ohm)
• Communication Concepts
• RF Elettronica www.rfmicrowave.it
• EBay (50 Ohm RG401,RG402, RG316, RG142)
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More Critical Parts
Terminations
• Richardson RFPD
• RFMW Limited (Florida RF labs terminations)
• EBay
High power RF resistors and attenuators
• Richardson RFPD (ATC attenuators)
• Newark (Johanson attenuators)
• Mouser (high power resistors for attenuators)
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More Critical Parts
Relays and transfer switches
• RFPARTS (www.rfparts.com) - Tohtsu, Dow Key
• Surplus Sales of Nebraska - Tohtsu, Dow Key
• EBay
• WWW.W6PQL.COM (input relay board)
PC boards
• Communications Concepts
• RFHAM
• WWW.W6PQL.COM
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More Critical Parts
Copper spreaders
• RFHAM
• WWW.W6PQL.COM
Aluminum heat sinks
• www.heatsinkusa.com
• WWW.W6PQL.COM (fully machined to accept
spreaders)
Cabinets and panels
• www.frontpanelexpress.com
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Design Cautions
1. All bands
• Use good quality PC board substrate
• Matching components (capacitors)
• Best capacitor for matching is coaxial
• Instability due to low frequency gain
• Gate components
2. Bias stability (thermal drift)
• LDMOS IDQ thermal drift
• Use of thermistors for stabilization
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OK, you have an RF Deck
Now what?
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Block diagram
For a complete
Desktop amplifier
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Flange-Mount Attenuators
• Available in 3,6,10,20
and 30 db packages
(availability varies)
• Made by ATC and
Johanson
• 100 watt package
• Requires transistion
boards
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A more flexible option
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Attenuator setup
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Low Pass Filter
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Low Pass Filter
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Filter Passband
2m setup
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Low Pass Filter
with dual directional detector
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Low Pass Filter
with dual directional detector
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Low Pass Filter
with dual directional detector
1. Coupler will sample both
forward and reflected
power levels
2. Each band can be
configured for correct
signal levels
• On-board attenuators
set the correct signal
levels for the detector
diodes
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Coupler Response
coupling across VHF/UHF bands
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Antenna Relays (output)
Transfer switch
Dow Key model 412
SPDT model 402
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Antenna Relays (output)
SPDT – Tohtsu model CX600NL
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Relay Measurements (CX600NL)
insertion loss
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Relay Measurements (CX600NL)
return loss
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Relay Measurements (CX600NL)
isolation
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Antenna Relays (input)
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Relay Specs (CX120A)
insertion loss
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Relay Specs (CX120A)
return loss
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Relay Specs (CX120A)
isolation
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Control Board Functions
• Sequencer
– Prevents hot-switching the antenna output relay
• DC power gate
– VDD and bias (event 2)
• Fan control
• Reverse power lockout (high VSWR)
• Over-temp lockout
• Sequenced LNA power feed and drive power
gating if required (event 3)
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Coming soon to a band near you
• K2OP – 160 thru 6m
– 650w on 160m
– 1kw+ on 75m thru 10m
– 950w on 6m
– Broadband transformer design
Very complex switching and filtering, as you can imagine
– Harmonic content is as high as -9dbc on some bands
• Thus, a complex output filter is required…the prototype is
working well now
– Combination LPF and diplexer
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