High Performance Ka Band Power Amplifiers for Future EVA Radio Applications, Phase I

For commercial applications, the switching CMOS power amplifiers can be used in cellular and WLAN devices to minimize the power consumption and to extend the battery lifetime. Also, it can be used by homeland security personnel and emergency responders for long duration, long range and reliable radio communications. Since it allows high data rate transceiving, it can also be used in the exchange of large files between wireless devices and the HDTV signal streaming in WPAN network. If successful, the CMOS switching power amplifiers can be used in the EVA radio to satisfy the SWaP requirements, while enabling new functions, such as high data rate high definition video transceiving among EVA nodes and the rover. Additionally, they will dramatically enhance the battery lifetime, leading to longer durations of extravehicular activities and enhanced crew safety. Furthermore, the manufacturing process is based on silicon CMOS technology, which is fully compatible with other radio components used in the transceiver, making it possible to implement a radio-on-a-chip system. Since the useable frequency range of the CMOS switching power amplifiers are rather broad, and can be increased to higher frequencies using the 45nm node CMOS technology, it is feasible to implement compact and power efficient power amplifiers in different bands for a wide array of NASA missions. Examples include the Discovery, New Frontiers, Mars Scout, SMEX, MIDEX and others. More »