Step-1: Characterize the Bird 43 RF Section's Output I built a Bird 43 wattmeter RF section into the 1.2 GHz Solid State Power Amplifier (SSPA). I decided to control the SSPA using a Graphical User Interface (GUI)... To create the wattmeter function in software I first had to characterize the RF section's transfer curve - As you can see, the curve is non-linear. After some false starts, I found that I could plot the curve in Excel and have Excel normalize it (the red line) and generate a second-order polynomial expression, defining the curve. (in the upper right corner). |