Silicon carbide high frequency high power amplifier
AssigneeCBS Inc.
InventorsCarlton D. Davis, Jack J. Hawkins
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A high power amplifier (10) includes intelligent independent fault tolerant amplifying modules (11). Each of the modules (11) includes a power amplifier (17) having a plurality of silicon carbide transistor circuits (27-30) coupled in parallel and driven by a silicon carbide transistor circuit (26). The module (11) also includes a dedicated hybrid controller (18) that monitors the operational conditions of the power amplifier (17) and optimizes these operational conditions in order to provide fault isolation and to avoid unwanted failure of the module (11) as a whole.
Claims13
An intelligent high power amplifier comprising:
- a plurality of amplifier modules, each amplifier module including a power amplifier having a plurality of silicon carbide transistors;
- a plurality of dedicated hybrid controllers respectively coupled to said power amplifiers for monitoring and optimizing operational conditions thereof, each said hybrid controller being disposed in a respective one of said plurality of amplifier modules;
- a plurality of substantially identical first silicon carbide transistors coupled in parallel relationship, and a second silicon carbide transistor coupled in driving relationship to said plurality of first silicon carbide transistors;
- said dedicated hybrid controller including means for monitoring a status of said first and second silicon carbide transistors;
- wherein said dedicated hybrid controller includes analog control means for substantially maintaining a predetermined gain level of said power amplifier at a first predetermined gain level;
- and
- wherein said dedicated hybrid controller further includes a digital control means coupled to said analog control means for commanding said analog control means to maintain a second reduced predetermined gain level of said power amplifier responsive to detection of a failure of one of said plurality of first silicon carbide transistors.
An intelligent high power amplifier comprising:
- a plurality of amplifier modules, each amplifier module including a power amplifier having a plurality of silicon carbide transistors;
- a plurality of dedicated hybrid controllers respectively coupled to said power amplifiers for monitoring and optimizing operational conditions thereof, each said hybrid controller being disposed in a respective one of said plurality of amplifier modules;
- a plurality of substantially identical first silicon carbide transistors coupled in parallel relationship, and a second silicon carbide transistor coupled in driving relationship to said plurality of first silicon carbide transistors;
- said dedicated hybrid controller including means for monitoring a status of said first and second silicon carbide transistors;
- wherein said power amplifier further includes a plurality of couplers respectively coupled between an output of said second silicon carbide transistor and an input of each of said plurality of first silicon carbide transistors, said plurality of couplers splitting an output signal of said second silicon carbide transistor unit into a plurality of phase-shifted intermediate signals, each intermediate signal being input to a respective one of said first silicon carbide transistors.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.