Filtronic Cerus 32 E-band solid-state power amplifier

Filtronic has announced the Cerus 32 E-band solid-state power amplifier (SSPA) for terrestrial and non-terrestrial communication. Based on the company’s Cerus power-combining technology, it is a highly configurable product designed to offer an improved user interface and seamless integration.

With the expansion of satellite networks and an increasing number of people worldwide being connected to the internet via LEO satellite, the demand for data is expected to grow exponentially. This growth in user terminal capacity will require a significant increase in bandwidth to boost capacity. E-band provides the necessary wide bandwidth pipe to support the increase in user terminal capacity, and the Cerus 32 enables this through its high power.

The amplifier can be easily customised to enhance integration and is available as a standalone SSPA with WR12 input on top and output on the bottom, or with both input and output on the bottom. Moreover, it can be supplied with a powerful integrated Morpheus transceiver and high-power diplexer, providing an integrated high power transceiver module suitable for low Earth orbit applications.

The product has been designed to be compact and is useful for E-band ground station applications where performance is critical. It features a simple interface with a single 48 V input and has onboard regulation and bias control, making it easy to integrate. Additionally, it has a large surface area heat sink, enabling optimal thermal efficiency. Both high band (81–86 GHz) and low band (71–76 GHz) variants are available.

Each device consists of 32 E-band GaAs MMICs that are performance-matched and power-combined in waveguide, allowing for maximum linear power delivery. With up to 43 dBm of transmit power, the product can be applied in a range of applications and is specifically suitable for commercial, military and satcom applications.