Teledyne Paradise Datacom (Paradise), part of the Teledyne Defense Electronics Group, have received contracts worth $7.4 million to provide numerous PowerMAX SSPA (solid-state power amplifier) systems over the course of the next two years. The largest single award of $5.9 Million calls for multiple PowerMAX SSPA systems to be deployed by the customer to support Telemetry, Tracking, and Control (TT&C) and broadband data transmission for satellite communications during an ongoing expansion of teleport facilities.
The PowerMAX System from Paradise is a proven, mature platform for global SATCOM OEMs and service providers with over 60 similar systems deployed throughout North America, Europe, and Asia. These systems deliver complete parallel redundancy down to the embedded control level, thus allowing continuous remote communications with the system even in the event of the loss of an entire amplifier. A modular N+1 soft-fail, phase-combined system, PowerMAX is typically used as a “self-redundant” system and can be sized so that even with the loss of an RF module, the system automatically adjusts to maintain constant output power without the need for mechanical switching.
The PowerMAX system uses a combination of parallel power combining and traditional phase combining. The system is configured with one (1) system controller module for each four (4) amplifiers in the system. In systems with more than four (4) amplifiers, multiple controllers are used in a master/slave configuration. Each array of four amplifiers is structured in a parallel architecture redundant system. The RF outputs of each amplifier are phase combined to a single output. Each controller provides monitor and control capabilities for the four amplifiers to which it is connected. In systems with multiple controllers, one controller acts as the master, the other(s) are slave units to the master.
The sophisticated firmware design of the PowerMAX permits the system to operate as if it were a single chassis amplifier. There is no need to communicate directly with each individual amplifier chassis. The system maintains a hierarchy of control whereby one of the system controllers becomes the master control point. If the master controller were to fail, control is automatically passed on to the next controller in the array.
A powerful monitor and control system enables customers to operate a PowerMAX System either locally or remotely and as a single rack or a multi-module array. Unlike a common rack system, the modules are contained in an integrated framework that is designed to facilitate removal and replacement of a module with minimal effort. All of the systems are manufactured out of the Teledyne High Power Center of Excellence in Rancho Cordova, California.
