A High Temperature Wideband Power Amplifier for a Downhole Communication System

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Date
2016-01-27
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Publisher
Virginia Tech
Abstract

As the oil industry continues to drill deeper to reach previously untapped wells, the operating environments for electronic systems become harsher, especially due to high temperatures. It is essential to design electronic circuits and systems to be able to withstand these extreme temperatures. The proposed power amplifier (PA) has been designed for a downhole communication system operating at an ambient temperature of 230oC. GaN technology was chosen primarily due to its ability to function at a high junction temperature. The proposed PA was designed with Qorvo's T2G6003028-FL HEMT as it operates reliably at a high junction temperature (T_J) and also the package offers low junction to case thermal resistance . The proposed PA can operate reliably up to an ambient temperature of 230oC using passive cooling opposed to active cooling. At 230 C it operates in class A with a peak PAE of 25.03%, maximum output power of 1.66 W, peak gain of 24.5 dB, center frequency of 255 MHz with 1dB ripple in the passband over a 60 MHz bandwidth, 1dB output compression of approximately 32 dBm, and OIP3 of 37.9dBm. CW measurements were taken for all parameters.

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Keywords
High Temperature, Extreme Environment, Linear, Power Amplifier, GaN, Oil, RF, Application
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