Comtech Telecommunications Corp.'s Santa Clara, California-based subsidiary, Comtech Xicom Technology, Inc., has rolled-out a series of high-power Gallium Nitride Solid-State Power Amplifiers (GaN SSPAs) to fill out the top end of the company's SSPA product line — according to the firm, the new compact and rugged antenna-mount amplifiers are significantly more efficient than competing SSPAs, which makes them ideal for transportable and mobile SATCOM applications where power draw matters.

For Ku-band customers, the new model — XTSLIN-200K — covers the 13.75 to 14.5 GHz Ku-band with a minimum of 200 Watts of linear power. The unit is in a compact, low-profile outdoor package that is ideally suited for transportable applications.

The other new model — XTSLIN-100K — also covers 13.75 to 14.5 GHz, with a minimum of 100 Watts of linear power, and is in the same package size as the company's 100W Linear X-Band SSPA, allowing for easy conversion from X- to Ku-band.

At X-band, Xicom's new model XTSLIN-200X further extends Comtech Xicom's tactical X-band product line, offering a minimum of 200W of linear power. The compact package size is identical to that of the new 200W Ku-band amplifier. Comtech Xicom also stated they already have industry-leading, high-efficiency X-band GaN products in certified terminals at linear powers of 20W, 50W and 100W — now the product line extends to 200W.

Mark Schmeichel, Comtech Xicom's Senior Vice President and General Manager.

According to Mark Schmeichel, SVP and GM for Comtech Xicom, the company is working with customers to deploy X-band GaN SSPAs across a broad spectrum of power levels in small-to-medium sized terminals for tactical communications. Comtech Xicom offers linear powers from 20 Watts to 200 Watts in rugged compact packages. The new XTSLIN-200X compares favorably in size, weight, and especially power consumption to available products at this power level, and the common package size with the new Ku-band products is ideal for tactical military customers that want to optimize satellite availability. The company is looking forward to the growth of this market as on orbit X-band capacity grows dramatically.