This paper presents a novel assessment method that minimizes test-fixture-induced errors in non-coaxial power combiner measurement by extending the port reduction method. This method involves terminating certain ports to acquire the scattering matrix of an N-port network from the scattering matrix measured at a reduced port order. The entire DUT scattering matrix is obtained from multiple scanning measurements, which are taken from partial coaxial accessible ports, based on a set of configurable terminating states. This advantage is leveraged to exclude a major portion of coaxial launch structures that would otherwise be incorporated in the conventional multiport test fixture. An analogous concept here is applied to measure a waveguide traveling-wave power combiner. A sandwiched twin structure, containing a divider/combiner pair with certain auxiliary through-type components cushioned between them, is utilized to assess the combiner characteristics. A theoretical framework of the proposed method was established to test its potential precision. Thereafter, an in-situ implementation was conducted to test its practical application on a traveling-wave combined amplifier prototype operating at the Q-band (33–39 GHz).

In this paper, design, implementation, and experimental results of efficient, high-power, and multi-octave gallium nitride-high electron mobility transistor power amplifier are presented. To overcome the low optima source/load impedances of a large transistor, various topologies of a broadside-coupled impedance transformer are simulated, implemented, and measured. The used transformer has a flat measured insertion loss of 0.5 dB and a return loss higher than 10 dB over a decade bandwidth (0.4–4 GHz). The transformer is integrated at the drain and gate sides of the transistor using pre-matching networks to transform the complex optima source/load impedances to the appropriate impedances of the transformer plane. The measurement results illustrate a saturated output power ranged between 80 and 115 W with an average drain efficiency of 57% and gain of 10.5 dB across 0.6–2.6 GHz.