A Comtech Xicom SuperPower TWTA

[Via Satellite 03-13-2015] Comtech Xicom Technology has released high power Ku-band and Direct Broadcast Satellite (DBS)-band SuperPower Traveling Wave Tube Amplifiers (TWTAs). Designed for efficiency, the devices can double available TWTA output power and directly replace Klystron Power Amplifiers (KPAs) in satellite communications uplink applications.

The model XTD-2000KHE Ku-band TWTA supplies 750W of linear power and weighs 92 lbs. The amplifier requires less than 3200 watts of prime power.

Weighing in also at 92 lbs., the model XTD-1500DBSHE DBS-band TWTA yields 560 watts of linear power for Direct-to-Home (DTH) applications and draws approximately 2500 watts of prime power. Each unit can operate over the minus 40 to 60 degrees Celsius temperature range, and is small enough to be mounted in the antenna hub.

The new amplifiers come with built-in pre-distortion linearizers, output protection circuitry, Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP)-based Ethernet monitor and control interfaces, and redundancy switch control capability. Xicom attributed the TWTA advances to its new SuperPower technology that brings proven space designs down to the ground and takes established millimeter-wave designs and scales them for use at Ku- and DBS-band frequencies.