摘要 |
An apparatus for controlling the gain and phase of an input signal input to a power amplifier comprises a gain control loop configured to control the gain of the input signal based on power levels of the input signal and an amplified signal output by the power amplifier, to obtain a predetermined gain of the amplified signal, and a phase control loop configured to obtain an error signal related to a phase difference between the input and amplified signals, and control the phase based on the error signal, to obtain a predetermined phase of the amplified signal. The gain control loop may compare a power of a first signal derived from the input signal and a power of a second signal derived from the amplified signal. The first and second signals may be output by first and second couplers, which may have coupling factors that are selected such that the first and second signals have the same power level when the amplified signal has the predetermined gain. The current gain and phase of the amplified signal may be dependent on an operational history of the power amplifier, which may be a GaN power amplifier, and the apparatus and power amplifier may be included in a satellite. In another embodiment, a satellite includes a power amplifier control system that uses a feed-forward control loop to control both the gain and phase of a signal input to the power amplifier. |