Investigating the test and evaluation of GaN transistors radiation resistance in SSPA amplifier board in LEO satellite payload

With the advent of GaN technology, achieving microwave power with high efficiency by solid-state devices has become more available. Therefore, the use of SSPA amplifiers with GaN technology in satellites, especially LEO satellites, has been considered. space radiation can affect the performance and reliability of components in space systems, which needs to be investigated. One of the most important technologies that can be affected by radiation effects is GaN transistors. In this paper, the effect of TID on GaN transistors in the SSPA amplifier board is investigated. Since commercial components have been used in the engineering sample of the SSPA amplifier and the calculations obtained from the RDM estimates under the worst conditions show that it is necessary to conduct a test for these components, the radiation resistance test was performed for this amplifier. The results of the test conducted in this article show that the SSPA GaN board has radiation tolerance up to a dose of approximately 16 krad. Therefore, mismatched GaN transistors are resistant up to this amount of dose. This is while the sequencer board actually has less tolerance than 5.5 krad