Radar technology requires high efficiency and wide bandwidth performance at high output powers. However, new developments like using Joint Communication and Radar Sensing (JCRS), pulse shaping, and amplitude tapering provides an additional requirement: amplitude modulation. To satisfy all of these requirements, a Load-Modulated Balanced Amplifier (LMBA) using a wideband Class E is designed for 2.9-3.4 GHz using GaN transistors. First, an accurate linear model for the transistor is presented. After this, a new state-space solution for a Class-E LMBA is derived. And lastly, a LMBA using a wideband Class E is presented. Using a lossless matching network, the GaN-based amplifier has an average drain efficiency of 81 % over the full 10 dB power back-off. However, the final design has an average drain efficiency of 45 % with a peak output power of 44 dBm.

The accuracy of a true-RMS detector board based on the Analog Devices LTC5596 is determined by measuring the input power and the output voltage. A number of samples of the output voltage is taken and the mean and standard deviation is shown. These measurements are done for single-tone excitation with a direct connection and over-the-air setup, and for multi-tone excitation with a direct connection.

It has been demonstrated that the detector response worsens with over-the-air excitation, resulting in a doubling of the standard deviation in the output voltage compared to a direct connection. With multi-tone excitation, the standard deviation is fifteen times higher than with a direct connection. Additionally, with multi-tone excitation the mean output voltage is lower than with the same input power as single-tone. This discrepancy increases with the amount of tones.

A Keysight Advanced Design System simulation is also presented for the three different measurement setups. With the use of a Monte Carlo simulation uncertainty bounds between the function generator and the power detector are made. Furthermore the noise of the power detector is simulated and sources of noise analyzed.